Vinculis Sanguis
by Diswrit
Summary: Bobby and Sam have just started getting used to Dean being gone. So when he shows up at Sams door, it raises many questions, including how he made it out of hell. Alice is in bad condition, physically and mentally, and convinced that something big is on the horizon, and that Deans return signals the beginning of something that no one will be able to stop. Sequel to Three Knives.
1. Chapter 1

Bobby Singer had just gotten back from an exhausting trip, helping out an old friend with an Acheri he'd been having trouble with. He sat back in his desk, poured himself a glass of whiskey, and was about to take a drink, when the phone rang. He got a lot of phone calls regularly. He acted for most of the hunters as the number that you gave to the person who didn't quite buy into your FBI cover. He gave them the speech about how he had dispatched agents to investigate this that and the other thing, yada yada yada. He reached the phone, and picked it up.  
"Yeah?" he asked.  
"Bobby?" the person, a man asked from the other end. He sounded hoarse.  
"Yeah?" he said again.  
"It's me," they said.  
"Who's "me"?" Bobby asked. He'd dealt with more than his fair share of vague, unspecific-  
"Dean," the voice on the other end said. Bobby froze for a second, and then hung up the phone angrily. Dean was dead. In hell. No way that was Dean. It was someone else, probably someone who had a grudge against him(Probably Sheldon Beet, bastard). He started to walk away, but the phone rang again from behind him.  
"Who is this?" he asked.  
"Bobby, listen to me," the voice said. Bastard didn't even sound like Dean.  
"This ain't funny. Call again, I'll kill ya," Bobby said. He slammed the phone onto the receiver, and stomped back to his desk, sitting down and grabbing his drink, spilling a bit of it on the floor, but not really minding. What was one more spill, one more stain on the floor?  
Some part of him briefly considered the notion that Dean was back from hell, that he had gotten out somehow. After all, Alice had managed it. He shoved it down, reminding him self that A, Alice had a devils gate opened for her, B, she hadn't made a deal for her soul, so she technically still owned it, and C, it was Alice freaking Smith he was talking about. The phone rang again, and he stomped over to it.  
"I told you, stop calling me you dick," he said.  
"What?" the voice from the other end asked. It wasn't the same voice. He took a breath, and shook his head at himself.  
"Sorry, I though you were someone else. Who's this?" he asked.  
"Aaron Filium. I'm calling on behalf of one Doris Dory," he said.  
"I don't know any Doris Dory. You've got the wrong number," Bobby said.  
"You are Bobby Singer, right?" Aaron asked.  
"Yeah," Bobby said, trying to think of anyone he knew named Doris Dory. Nothing was coming to mind.  
"She's been admitted into a phsychiatric facility, and she said it was very important that I call you," Aaron said.  
"Right. Umm... What's she look like?" Bobby asked. It might be someone using a fake name, which happened quite a bit in the hunting business.  
"Medium height, hazel-ish eyes, bushy dark blond hair, and she's these scars on her arms-"  
"Where's she at?" Bobby asked sharply.  
"Oh, so you do know her?" Aaron asked.  
"Yeah, I do. Where is she?" Bobby asked again.  
"New Breten Phsychiatric Ward," Aaron said.  
"Is that New Breten Montana?" Bobby asked.  
"Yes," Aaron said.  
"Good, I know where that is," Bobby said. He hung up the phone before Aaron could say another word. He grabbed his jacket, and ran out the door, not bothering with anything else.

* * *

It was night, and two days later. Dean Winchester was outside of Bobbys house, knocking on his door.  
"Bobby! Bobby, open up, it's me!" he said. He didn't hear anything from inside the house, and all of the lights were off. He was probably out on a hunt. Damn it.  
He walked around the house, trying all of the first floor windows, though he wasn't really expecting any of them to be unlatched. Hunters didn't generally leave their windows open. He apologised to Bobby internally, before breaking one of his windows to get in. He needed to get ahold of someone he knew, and get help. Right now was possibly the most freaked out about any situation he'd ever been, and he wanted answers. He remembered all of his time in hell(longer than he wanted to think about), and a bright light, and than nothing. Until he'd woken up in a pine box, under six feet of dirt. He'd dug himself out, and seen some serious destruction around the grave site. He figured that he had been buried in a clearing in the middle of some woods, but there wasn't much left but an enormous clearing when he'd come back, apparently. That meant that however he'd gotten back, it must have been something powerful, and chances were, bad. Not the mention the weird ringing. It had happened twice so far, once in a gas station(it hurt his ears like- well, not like hell, and blew out all the windows), and once more in a car he'd been riding shutgun trying to get here(The car broke down, again, all the windows blown out). So he would have been freaked out even if he wasn't aware of all the bad crap out there.  
He'd tried all of Alices numbers that he knew, and all of Sams. The difference between Alice and Sam was that Dean knew that Alice was significantly better at covering her tracks than Sam. If Alice didn't want to be found, he wasn't going to find her. Sam on the other hand, he knew Sam inside and out. He could find Sam, and he also knew that there was a chance that where ever Sam was, Alice was with him.  
He hoped it wasn't the case, but he more than suspected that Sam had made some sort of deal to get him out of hell. That would suck like a bitch, because then he'd have to find some way to get Sam out of his deal. He found a laptop buried under a pile of papers and empty whiskey bottles on the dining room table, and settled down with the phone.  
"Hello? Yeah, hi, I have a cell phone account with you guys, and uh, I lost my phone. I was wondering if you could turn the GPS on for me. Yeah. Name's Wedge Antilles. Social is 2-4-7-4. Thank you," he said. "Sammy, that's just sloppy," he mumbled under his breath. But then again, Sam had probably figured Dean was the last person who would be looking for him, and Dean was the only person who knew Sam well enough to guess he would use that ID.  
He went to a website, and input the code she had given him. The laptop beeped, and the display showed a city map with a blue arrow pointing to a star. The locator read, 'Phone Location: 263 Adams Road, Pontiac, Illinois'.  
"Coincidentally, right by where I popped back up," Dean muttered to himself. He stood, thinking there was very little chance that was coincidence. He'd hitch-hiked to get here, but he was sure that Bobby wouldn't mind lending him one of the twenty some odd cars that were in working condition just lying around the lot.

* * *

Bobby took short rest breaks the first two days, but drove straight through the last night, anxious to get to New Breten. He'd been looking for Alice for almost three months now, not because he cared much for her, but because he did care about Sam, and Sam staying alive, and there was a chance that Alice either knew where Sam was, or had him with her. Although the chances that the latter were true were minimal since she was, apparently, in a mental hospital. Probably right where she belongs too, he thought.  
Bobby walked into the lobby in a suit. Alice had given them his real name, which was going to make some problems for him, since he was posing as an FBI agent(Just in case), but he had a backup plan in case things went south.  
"Hi, I'm special agent Robert Singer, I heard that you have a Ms. Doris Dory with you," he said.  
"Yes, she was brought in a week ago," the woman said.  
"I don't suppose I could see her," Bobby said.  
"Well she's quite dangerous Mr. Singer. She was found in a hotel room when nearby residents reported hearing screams, torturing a man. They said there were satanic symbols all over the place, and it took seven men and a tranquilizer to subdue her. We're just keeping her here until she can be transferred to a more secure facility," the woman said.  
"That's why I'd like to see her," Bobby said, pulling his badge out. The womans eyebrows shot up immediately, and he could practically hear ten dozen questions running through her mind simultaneously.  
"Uhm, of course Mr- Agent Singer. Uhm... Timmy," she called to a man dressed in a guards uniform who was sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper. He looked up when she called, and she pointed to Bobby.  
"Would you take Agent Singer here to see Ms. Dory?" she asked.  
"I thought no one was allowed in," he said.  
"_Agent_ Singer," she stressed.  
"Oh... Oh, right," Timmy said, putting the newspaper down on the bench and standing, and heading over to the desk. The woman handed Bobby a sheet of paper and a pen.  
"Just the one thing, you need to sign this," she said. Bobby looked it over, and snorted derisively when he saw it was a release form, clearing the hospital of all responsibility for any injuries recieved to visitors on the premises. He signed it, and handed it back to her, and followed Timmy through the halls. Timmy was a young man, maybe in his early twenties, with messy black hair, and pointy looking elbows.  
"So, I don't want to be pressing or anything, but I thought the cops said they were through with her for now," Timmy said.  
"I ain't a cop," Bobby said.  
"Oh. What then?" Timmy asked, confused.  
"FBI," Bobby said.  
"Oh," Timmy said. "What do you guys want with her?" he asked.  
"That's federal business," Bobby said simply. Timmy licked his lips, but didn't say anything else. They walked for a few more minutes, before he stopped at a door, hesitating before speaking. "We've tried to keep her sedated, but the tranquilizers don't work too well. She's got some sort of resistance to them," Timmy said.  
Bobby nodded. "Got it. I need a few minutes alone with her," he said.  
"How many?" Timmy asked, unlocking the door and pulling it open.  
"Ten or so," Bobby said, stepping into the room. Timmy nodded, and stayed by the door. The room inside was small, but not necessarily cramped. The only things in the room were a chair, and a bed, and Alice was strapped to the bed, wearing what he guess was the standard outfit for patients at this place. She was pale, and sweaty, and skinnier than the last time he'd seen her. She had dark circles under her eyes, and her hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in weeks. She was staring straight up at the ceiling blankly, her mouth open slightly.  
"Alice?" he asked.  
There were a few seconds that she didn't respond. He was about to speak again, when she turned her gaze to him slowly. "Hey Singer," she said, dry lips curving up in a small smile. Her voice was hoarse, and weak, a word he never thought he'd use to describe Alice.  
"You don't look too good," he said.  
"Well I feel like shit," she said. "You know this bed frame's iron?"  
"Ouch. You gonna be able to stick around for much longer?" he asked.  
"Don't worry about it. I'm not going anywhere. I didn't expect you to come," she said.  
"Well I did. Why'd you call me instead of someone else?" he asked curiously.  
"Can't find Riley. Probably best for both of us. Couldn't get ahold of Seebred. I thought you were the next most likely person to come bust me out," she said.  
"Who said I was here to bust you out?" Bobby asked. "They said they found you torturing a man."  
"Did they mention he was in the middle of a devils trap? Or that I was 'torturing' him with holy water?" she asked.  
"No. I figured he was a demon though. You didn't hurt the guy hosting him?" Bobby asked.  
"'Course not," she said, feigning offense. He thought it was incredible that she could look this bad and still be sarcastic. "So, if you didn't come to bust me out, why'd you come?" Alice asked.  
"I came to ask you if you knew where Sam is," Bobby said.  
"Sure I do. I'll tell you once you get me out of here," she said.  
"Swear you really know where he is," Bobby said. Alice was silent, and Bobbys hopes were dashed.  
"Well I had to try, didn't I?" Alice said when his posture dropped.  
"Alice, not to offend you, but I think that you belong in a place like this," Bobby said.  
"Come on. I'm a hunter. One of the good guys. I-"  
"I don't want to hear it. There are two kinds of hunters Alice, ones that do it to help people, and the ones that do it 'cause they don't know how to do, or don't want to do anything else. You're the last kind, and worse than that, you ain't got a conscience to keep you in check. Hell, if I had to take a guess I'd say you're at least partly phsychotic," Bobby said.  
"Do you even know what that word means?" Alice demanded. Bobby, not bothering to dignify her with a response, stood, ready to leave. "Look, I get it Singer, you don't like me," she said, and he stopped to look back at her. "You think I'm soulless, and a bad influence on Sam."  
"You are," he said.  
"Whatever. But you still have to get me out of here. Something big's starting. Something bigger than you could imagine," Alice said.  
"There are other hunters out there to take care of it," Bobby said. "No. Not this time Singer. Hunters can't stop this one on their own," Alice said.  
"What, and you can?" Bobby asked.  
"No. But I can help. I know more about what's about to go down than any other hunter in the world, and I'll swear on that," she said.  
"What's happening then?" Bobby asked. "What's gonna go down that it's so big and awful that hunters can't stop it?"  
"Do you read the bible Singer?" she asked.  
"I've read parts of it," he replied.  
"How about Revelations?" she asked.  
"Are you talkin' about the damn apocalypse?" Bobby asked.  
"Yes," she said.  
"You're crazy Smith. You always were, but now you really knocked somethin' loose in there," he said, turning to walk away.  
"Singer! God damn you, listen to me!" she yelled after him as he walked out, closing the door behind him. "I can help! Singer!"  
He kept going, ignoring her shouts from behind him.

* * *

Where it had taken him two days to get away from Illinois hitch-hiking, by driving almost all night, and most of the next day, he made it back just after nightfall. He found the hotel, and got the room number for the fake name that Sam had registered with(Honestly, he had to have a talk with the kid about not using the same personas over and over again). He found the room, and knocked on the door. It was answered almost before he was finished knocking by a brunette wearing only underwear and a tank top. A hot brunette, he corrected himself.  
"So where is it?" she asked him expectantly.  
"Where's what?" Dean asked, confused.  
"The pizza," she said as if it should have been obvious.  
"Uh... I'm not delivering a pizza. I think I've got the wrong-" He cut off as Sam poked his head around the door.  
"What's going-" He also stopped abruptly as he saw Dean, swallowing hard, and staring at him in blank shock.  
"Heya Sammy," Dean said, smiling. He stepped past the woman to hug his brother. Damn, had he gotten taller? Maybe Dean had lost an inch or so. He stepped away from Sam, still smiling. Sam still looked shocked, though he was recovering somewhat.  
"I- I don't..." he trailed off.  
"Yeah, me neither," Dean said, turning to look at the room. Why the hell was there a mirror on the ceiling? "But here I am."  
Strange as the mirror was, he was glad for it a second later, when he saw Sam coming at him with a knife. He dodged to the side quickly, and Sam turned, and slashed at him again instead of barreling past as Dean had expected him to. Dean dodged to avoid it, but Sam kept coming at him, and he was quickly backed against the wall. Dean grabbed Sams wrist as he tried to stab him, trying to hold him off.  
"Sam, it's me!"  
"Like hell it is! Who are you?!" Sam shouted.  
Dean managed to turn them around, and push Sam away from him, backing up to put some distance between them.  
"Like you didn't do this!" he said angrily.  
"Do what?!" Sam demanded.  
"I don't know! Something to bring me back," Dean said.  
Sam looked at him for a moment, before shaking his head, and coming towards him again.  
"I don't buy that! You're a Shifter!" he said, lunging at Dean again. Dena grabbed him again, this time trying to get the knife away from him.  
"I am not a shapeshifter!" he yelled.  
"Then you're a Revenant!" Sam yelled back.  
Dean managed to get the knife from him again, shoving him away and holding the knife out in front of him.  
"Alright. If I was either, could I do this, with a silver knife?" he said. Sam watched as he rolled up his left sleeve, slices his arm just below the elbow, but above his torxing marks, with the knife. A thin line of blood appeared. Sam relaxed his posture a bit, looking at Dean with something close to wonder as he started to believe him.  
"Dean?" he asked.  
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," Dean said.  
Sam broke out into a grin, walking over and hugging Dean tightly. Dean returned the hug with enthusiasm, despite Sams almost bone-crushing grip on him, grinning from ear to ear.  
The woman, still standing by the door, now looking confused, spoke then.  
"So are you two like... together?" she asked.  
Sam broke away from the hug, looking at her like he'd forgotten that she was there.  
"What? No. No. He's my brother," he said.  
"Uh... got it. I... I guess. Look, I should probably go," she said.  
"Yeah. Yeah, that's probably a good idea. Sorry," he said. She went into the bathroom, and Dean watched her go, amused.  
"Looks like you had plenty of fun while-"  
He turned back to Sam, and broke off as Sam tossed a bottle of water(Holy Water, he realized) at him. He spit some of it out to the side.  
"I'm not a demon either you know," he said.  
"Sorry. Can't be too careful though," Sam said. The woman came back out of the bathroom with a pair of jeans and a leather jacket on, holding a purse. She stopped before she walked out the door, glancing back at Sam.  
"So, call me," she said.  
"Yeah. Yeah, sure thing, Kathy," he said.  
"Kristy," she said, looking disappointed.  
"Right," Sam said as she left, closing the door behind her.  
Sam stared after her, and Dean crossed his arms over his chest, ready to figure out what was going on now that the girl was gone.  
"So tell me, what'd it cost?" he asked.  
"The girl? I don't pay, Dean," Sam said, smiling.  
"That's not funny, Sam. To bring me back. What'd it cost? Was it just your soul, or was it something worse?" Dean asked.  
"You think I made a deal?" Sam asked incredulously.  
"That's exactly what I think," Dean said.  
"Well, I didn't," Sam said.  
"Don't lie to me Sammy," Dean said seriously.  
"I'm not lying," Sam said.  
"I don't buy that Sam. You did something to get me out of hell, made some kind of deal. With something a lot worse than your average crossroads demon. What is it, I'm off the hook and you're on, is that it? You're some demons bitch-boy? I didn't want to be saved like this," Dean said.  
"Look, Dean, I wish I had done it, all right?" Sam said angrily,  
"There's no other way that this could have gone down. Now tell the truth!" Dean said.  
"I tried everything," Sam said, wrenching himself out of Deans grasp. "That's the truth. I tried opening the Devil's Gate. Hell, I tried to bargain, Dean, but no demon would deal, all right? You were rotting in Hell for months. For months, and I couldn't stop it. So I'm sorry it wasn't me, all right? Dean, I'm sorry," Sam said.  
Dean relented, hearing a ring of truth, and genuine remorse in his words. "It's okay, Sammy. You don't have to apologize, I believe you," Dean said.  
Dean moved to sit on the bed, and Sam on a chair. They were silent for a moment, before Sam spoke. "Did you consider that maybe Alice did something?" he asked.  
Dean looked up, realizing that was a possibility. Hell, it was the next most likely thing. He stood abruptly. "Where is she?" he asked.  
Sam shook his head. "I don't know. She left right after we heard you were dead, before we even buried you, and I haven't seen or heard from her since."  
Dean put his hands over his face, a horrible feeling of dread growing in his gut. "God Alice, what did you do?" he asked himself softly.  
"What makes you think she made the deal with something worse than a crossroads demon?" Sam asked abruptly after a few more minutes.  
"What?" Dean asked.  
"You said that the deal had to have been made with something worse than your average crossroads demon. Why?" Sam asked.  
"Because whatever brought me back, it was some bad mojo. You should have seen the grave site Sammy. It looked like a nuke went off," Dean said. "And I've been feeling this... presence. At a fill up joint, and in a car. The car broke down, and the gas station was wrecked."  
"You think it might have been a demon high up on the food chain?" Sam asked.  
"I don't know what else," Dean said. He ran a hand through his hair, trying to work things out. "We need to find Alice. You don't know where she is?" he asked Sam.  
"No, I haven't seen her in four months," Sam said. "We could try other hunters. Maybe Bobby? He hears a lot of things, especially about what other hunters are doing. She was pretty upset the last time I saw her, but maybe Bobby knows where she is. Hell, he might even know what she did to bring you back for all I know."  
"You've really been out of it, haven't you," Dean said.  
"Not really out of anything. Just into others," Sam said.  
Dean chuckled, spotting a bra on the floor next to the bed. He picked it up, waving it at Sam like a banner. "Sure. Other things," he said, grinning.  
"Shut up," Sam said, standing and snatching it away from him, tossing it behind him.  
"Right. Well, unless you've got any 'other things' you need to do, we should probably be getting on over to Bobbys," Dean said, standing.  
"I'm here on a hunt for some demons," Sam said.  
"How urgent is it?" Dean asked.  
Sam shot him a funny look, but shrugged. "Not too I guess. They haven't killed anyone so far."  
"Great, we can come back for them," Dean said. "Right now, I want to find Alice and figure out what she did."  
"Sure. Right, just um... just let me get my stuff in order," Sam said. Dean waited while he gathered up a few loose things(Noticing that he kept the bra, and deciding Sam had gotten a bit creepy in his absence), before they walked out the door, into the parking lot. Sam immediately headed to where the Impala was parked, and Dean broke out in a huge grin when he saw the car.  
"I almost forgot," he said as they reached the car. "Hey sweethart. Did you miss me?" he asked, running a hand over the car lovingly.  
"I'll assume you want to drive," Sam said, pulling the keys out of his pocket and tossing them to Dean, who caught them. He got in the car, and settled in, about to start it up, when he noticed an ipod plugged into the stereo. He gave it a dirty look, before turning to glare at Sam when he got in the car.  
"What the hell is that?" he demanded.  
"That's an ipod jack," Sam replied.  
"You were supposed to take care of her, not douche her up," Dean complained as he started the car.  
"Dean, I thought it was my car," Sam said as a song that Dean didn't know started playing(He didn't like it). He ripped the ipod out, and tossed it in the backseat, starting to back out, before remembering Bobbys car.  
"Oh, I drove one of Bobbys cars here. It'd probably be a good idea to take it back," Dean said.  
"Which one?" Sam asked, glancing back.  
"That red one," Dean said, pointing at the busted up car.  
"Fine. I'll drive it back," he said, holding his hand out for the keys.  
"Uh, I couldn't find the keys," Dean said. Sam rolled his eyes, getting out and going to hotwire the car.

* * *

Alice squirmed on the hospital bed, trying to get more comfortable. She suspected that the springs in the god damned mattress were iron too. She would have had to leave Danny by now, except that she'd gotten an idea from what Ruby had done with her sister, and locked herself into the body with him. In the beginning, when she'd first taken him over, she could hear him thinking at her. Now, he was quiet all the time, except for the rare instances when he would pipe up, or try to take the wheel back from her. It never worked. He'd been trying a lot since she'd gotten into the hospital, but even weakened by the iron as she was, she was still stronger than he was.  
The night stretched out. She guessed whatever sedatives they were using didn't work on Shifters, or maybe it had something to do with her. She could only guess, and she wasn't too inclined to spend a lot of time on it. She had other things to worry about.  
She didn't get any sleep that night, and was exhausted by the time that light started showing through the barred window. She was in a bit of a twilight mode now, not sleeping, but not fully conscious, her fevered thoughts becoming more and more random as she slipped gradually towards unconsciousness. She didn't care. She always had the same dream, or memory. It never changed. She suspected they were doing it on purpose, so she couldn't forget(As if she would have been able to anyway).

It was that night, about a week after Deans death, when the only thing she could think of that would get him out was prayer. And so she had prayed. She heard a fluttering behind her. An angel. "Hello Alice," the deep voice came again. She stood, and turned to see the Angel.  
"Cut the polite crap. I'm ready," she'd said, spreading her arms out.  
"I'm sorry," he said.  
"I don't care. Make this quick," she said.  
"I'm not here to kill you," he said.  
She put her arms down, looking at him with a mixture of shock and confusion. "What?" she asked.  
"My orders are not to kill you Alice Smith. I am to tell you that we are working on retrieving Dean Winchester from perdition," he said.  
"You're answering my prayer?" she asked incredulously.  
"We were working to save Dean Winchester from the moment he made his deal," the angel said.  
She snorted, sitting in the chair. "Well you did a bang-up job of it. You goofs usually aren't subtle with 'helping' people," she said.  
"We did the best we could under the circumstances," the angel said.  
"What does that mean?" Alice asked.  
"I was also told to tell you that you are under no circumstances to deal for the Winchesters soul," the Angel went on.  
"Why not?" Alice demanded.  
"You know the drill Alice. We get out orders. We don't ask why we're given them," he said.  
She raised her head. "I only know one angel in the garrison that said that," she said, realizing who she was talking to.  
"It's been a long time. Things have changed since then," the Angel said.  
"Not a whole lot," she said, looking him over. "You're still being hosted by accountants."  
"This man is not an accountant," the Angel said.  
"Whatever. Do me a favor when you get up to heaven, give Naziel the bird for me," she said. "And whoever gave you those orders. I'm through taking orders from Angels and Heaven. I'll do whatever I so please to get Dean out of Hell."  
He was in front of her suddenly, looking down at her. She saw a flicker in the shadows behind him, and thought that they formed the shape of wings, but they were gone as quickly as they'd appeared, and she was tired, after all.  
"Alice, you will not be allowed to," the Angel said.  
"Why not?" she demanded, standing.  
"I don't-"  
"Bullshit. I know that you like finding out why orders are given, and I know that you know," Alice said. "Tell me Castiel."  
"Those weren't my orders," he said.  
"Did anyone order you not to tell me?" she asked, cocking an eyebrow. He shifted uncomfortably, but didn't say anything.  
She nodded. "That's what I thought. Why, Castiel?"  
"You have a role to play. They want you alive, and they want you to stay that way," the Angel, Castiel, said.  
"What role?" Alice asked.  
"I don't know that," Castiel said. Alice regarded him, and knew he was telling the truth. She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, he was gone again.

* * *

**Note: If you're wondering about the title, it's Latin, and loosely translates to Ties of Blood.**


	2. Chapter 2

Dean regretted having Sam ride behind a bit, because it meant that all the questions Sam could have answered for him during the car ride to Bobbys would have to wait, and he had quite a few of them. He briefly considered ditching the car and hoping Bobby wouldn't notice it was gone, but couldn't quite bring himself to do it.  
They reached Sioux Falls two days later, still unsure how they were going to break the news to Bobby without giving him a heart attack(Or having him try to kill Dean the way Sam had). They finally settled on having Sam go to door, and explain the situation to Bobby, trying to be mild about it. Sam glanced back at Dean, who was leaning against the car, before knocking on the door. It was answered a moment later by Bobby, who froze in his tracks when he saw Sam. Sam smiled a bit apprehensively, not sure whether Bobby would hug him, or slap him.  
"Hey Bobby," he said.  
"Sam," Bobby said in surprise. He reached forward and pulled Sam into a hug. "I've been trying to get ahold of you for months boy! Where were you? And why the hell wouldn't you answer my calls?"  
"I'm sorry Bobby, I was just... I was distracted," Sam said.  
"Distracted?!" Bobby demanded.  
"I had a lot on my mind," Sam said.  
"I guess that flies," Bobby said somewhat reluctantly. "At least you're still in one piece. Why don't you come on in?" Bobby said, turning to head back inside.  
"Uh, Bobby?" Sam asked. Bobby turned back to him.  
"Yeah?"  
"I didn't come alone," Sam said, pointing back at the car. Bobby stepped farther out of the doorway, peering over at the car. Dean waved, and Bobby just stared at Dean for a few moments before looking back at Sam.  
"What'd you do boy?" he half growled half groaned.  
Sam put his hands up defensively as Dean started over. "It wasn't me. I didn't do anything. He just showed up at my hotel room two days ago."  
"But don't feel too bad about it," Dean said as he reached them. "I assumed he made some sort of deal or something too."  
Bobby kept staring at him like he had an extra eye, and Dean looked down at his feet uncomfortably after a minute, scratching the back of his neck.  
"Also, I already checked him. He's not a shifter, not a revenant, and not a demon either," Sam added, hoping to spark some kind of action. It worked, sort of. Bobby turned his eyes to Sam, and crossed his arms over his chest.  
"If you didn't do something to get him back, how the hell's he here?" Bobby asked.  
"That's what we're trying to figure out," Sam said. He nodded towards the open door. "Can we come in, and talk about this over a drink?" he asked. Bobby nodded slowly, and stepped aside, letting Dean and Sam in, before stepping in after them and closing the door behind himself.

* * *

Alice had figured that the most likely way for her to get out of this place was to pretend she was actually out cold, and take whatever chances presented themselves to her while they were transferring her. And that was easy, since she was already so tired from resisting the sedatives and the iron in the bed frame and springs. The only problem was, it was a bit too easy, and somewhere in the middle of having her eyes closed, and them coming in to inject her with more sedatives, she actually did pass out. And when she woke up, she was in a straitjacket, strapped to a gurney in the back of a van. There were two men in the back with her, trying to play a game of cards in while the vehicle was bumping up and down. The cards kept skidding here and there and around, and they were gripping them tightly to keep them from flying away. It was almost funny.  
She could hear Danny laughing at her, and snapped at him to shut up, trying to think her way out of this. Both of the guards turned to look at her, and she cursed herself, realizing that she'd spoken aloud.  
"She's up," one of the men said.  
"It's your turn," the other replied.  
"No it isn't," the other argued.  
"Yes it is, because I did the last one," the other one shot back.  
"We're starting the clock over," the other one said.  
"No we ain't," the other one said, raising his voice.  
"Oh for fucks sake toss a coin of something, you're giving me a headache," Alice moaned from where she was lying, immobile.  
The two men look at each other, and the one who'd spoken last shrugged. "Let's do it," he said. He pulled a coin out of his pocket, and called heads, before tossing it. It landed on tails, and he cursed as he got up, preparing a syringe.  
"You're coherent for a nutjob," the one who was still crouching in the corner remarked.  
"I'm not a nutjob," Alice said.  
"Sure. Whatever you say Ms... what's your name?" the man asked as he poked her with the needle.  
"Can't remember," she said, figuring it was a better strategy to forget her name than give them another fake one, and risk them trying to actually put a name to her.  
The man went back to his game, and she stared straight up, determined to stay awake this time.

* * *

Bobby and Sam were seated at the table, having explained everything to Bobby. Dean had gotten up to grab a few beers from the fridge. He handed them out, and sat down again.  
"So what were you doing up in Pontiac if you weren't digging Dean out of his grave?" Bobby asked.  
"Well, once I figured out I couldn't save you, I started hunting down Lilith, trying to get some payback," Sam said.  
"Alone?" Dean demanded.  
"Who do you think you are, your old man?" Bobby asked angrily.  
"I'm sorry, Bobby. I should have called. I was pretty messed up," Sam said."Anyways, uh, I was checking these demons out of Tennessee, and out of nowhere they took a hard left, booked up to Pontiac," Sam said.  
"When?" Dean asked.  
"Uh, Sunday," Sam said.  
"When I busted out," Dean said.  
"You think they hauled their asses all the way up to Illinois 'cause of you?" Bobby asked.  
"But why?" Sam asked.  
"Well, I don't know – some badass demon drags me out and immediately after a bunch of little demons show up in the area? It's gotta be connected somehow," Dean said.  
"How do you know it was a demon that pulled you out?" Bobby asked.  
"What else could it be Bobby?" Sam asked.  
"Well I'd like to know why would a demon pull him out in the first place if you didn't make a deal," Bobby saidd.  
Dean and Sam looked at one another, before Sam spoke. "We think that someone else might have made a deal," he said.  
"Alice, to be more specific?" Sam said.  
"You think Alice sold her soul for you?" Bobby asked, not sounding convinced.  
"It's the best thing we have to go on," Dean said. "That's one of the big reasons why we came up your way, besides wanting to break the big news to you, we thought you might know where Alice is."  
"I know where she is alright. They'll probably have transferred her by now though," Bobby said.  
"Transferred her?" Dean asked. "What the hell does that mean?"  
"Last time I saw her, early Tuesday, she was in a mental institution in New Breten, Montana. They were waiting to transfer her to someplace more secure," he said.  
"Why didn't you bust her out?" Dean asked.  
"Because the way I see it, that's right where Alice Smith belongs," Bobby said.  
"Bobby, what were you thinking?" Dean demanded.  
"Look, you want to sit around arguin' about it, or do you want to go get her?" Bobby said.  
"We'll go get her," Sam said. "Do you have anything going on, or can you come along?" he asked Bobby.  
"I can come," Bobby said, getting up and going into the other room to grab some things while Dean started out to the car.  
"Hey, wait," Sam said, standing as Dean reached the door. Dean turned back to look at him as he walked over to join him, pulling something out of his pocket. "You probably want this back." He handed Dean a small gold amulet. Dean took, it surprised. It was a small thing, but it held a lot of meaning to him. Sam had given it to him for christmas one year when they were little, and... it was a long story.  
"Thanks," Dean said.  
"Yeah, don't mention it," Sam said. Dean put the amulet on, and walked out the door, heading for the car, Sam walking alongside him. Dean put the key in the ignition, just waiting for Bobby to come out.  
"Hey Dean, what was it like?" Sam asked abruptly from the passenger side.  
"What?" Dean asked, though he had a pretty good idea what Sam was going to ask.  
"Hell," Sam said. "I mean, you don't have to-"  
"No, it's... it's fine. I don't know anyway, I, I must have blacked it out. I don't remember a damn thing," Dean lied.  
"Well, thank God for that," Sam said.  
"Yeah," Dean said, chuckling quietly.

* * *

It seemed to Alice that the two guys riding with her were a bit smarter than the ones at the hospital. When they noticed that she was staying awake, they upped the dosage, and Alice wasn't able to hold out any longer. When she woke up again, she was in a larger room. A padded one. She groaned, trying to roll into a sitting position while still in the straight jacket, only to fall right back over, a wave of dizziness and nausea washing over her. Damn, how much of that crap had they given her on the ride here? Probably enough to down a horse or two.  
She turned her head around, taking in her surroundings. There wasn't much to see. The walls were pure white higher up, but the bottom of the room, as well as about half of the walls were closer to grey. And it stank. The one upside she could see was that there didn't seem to be any iron in the whole room, which was a relief. She pushed against the straight jacket, grimacing at her own weakness. Since she'd been inhabiting a shifters body, she'd become accustomed to being able easily to do things that humans couldn't. A straight jacket shouldn't have been an issue. And now that she wasn't strapped to iron, she should-  
The door opened then, and she stopped struggling, looking up as a woman entered the room. She rolled her eyes.  
"Here to drug me some more?" she asked.  
"No. That's not necessary, is it?" the woman asked.  
"Not in the least," Alice said, flipping her hair out of her face so she could see the woman better. She was probably short, though it was hard to tell from on the ground. She wore glasses, and had short brown hair. She was wearing nice clothes, though Alice noticed her shoes the most easily, since she was on their level after all. Mary Janes, brown, with about an inch high heel to them. She was carrying a notebook as well, which unnerved Alice slightly, though she wasn't sure why.  
"Let me guess," Alice said. "You're a shrink."  
"Dr. Anne Taylin," the woman said. "And you're Doris?"  
"Is that the name I gave you?" Alice asked.  
"Yes," Anne said.  
"Don't know what the hell I was thinking with that one. Doris is an awful name. Damn drugs," Alice said. Something in the back of her mind told her that she was talking too much, but she didn't really care. All she did care about was trying to get out of here. Which would be easier if she could think more clearly. Damn drugs!  
"Doris isn't your real name though, is it?" Anne asked. "Your real name is actually Meridith Reaver."  
Alices eyebrows shot up instantly. That was another one of her aliases. "Where am I?" she asked.  
"You're in an institute for the criminally insane," Anne said, crouching down next to her.  
"No. What city, in what state?" Alice asked.  
"Fairfield Montana," Anne said.  
"Oh fuck," Alice swore. Back when she was younger, and sloppier, 19 or so, she'd worked a case here, and ended up killing three succubi. The only problem being that she was caught, and the judge didn't really buy that story. She'd been charged with three counts of first degree murder, and had plead insanity. She didn't remember exactly what happened, but that she had escaped while being transferred from the holding center to a mental treatment facility or some shit. She figured she'd better stay insane now, and try to escape at a later time.  
"So, any Succubi show up since I cleaned this place out?" Alice asked seriously. She was slowed down a bit as far as thinking went by the drugs, and she figured the best thing to do at the moment would be to seem as docile as possible to avoid them drugging her further. Then, she could take opportunities as they presented themselves.  
"I'm not sure. How do you recognize a succubi?" Anne asked.  
Alice grimaced, realizing that it might be a while before a good chance came along. Maybe the therapist would go away at least. It would only make it a bit more bearable, but still... she didn't want, need, or like therapy in the least. For anything. She could take care of her 'issues'(And she wasn't kidding herself, she knew she had a few of them) quite well on her own. She'd been doing it for her entire life, she'd been doing a damn good job of it in her mind too.  
Yeah right, Danny piped up. You're more messed up than I am. You could do with some therapy. Heck, you're even hearing voices.  
Alice ignored him, and looked back at the therapist( what was her name again?), preparing herself for a few days(Perhaps even longer) of pretending to be along with whatever program they had planned for her until she could escape. Something told her it was going to seem like a very, very long time.


	3. Chapter 3

Alice didn't know who she was more pissed at, the damn janitor or whoever the fuck it was, or her own stupid self. They'd drugged her again, and while it was mostly her fault, she didn't like being angry at herself. Better at other people. After three days without any drugs, she'd broken out of the straight jacket, only to find that the reason it had taken her so long to work up the strength to do it was that the damn door was iron. Unable to get past it, she'd waited until Anne had tried to come in, and then tried to run out past her. Unfortunately, she'd fell on her way out, and bumped into another iron door, and that was it for her. The people chasing her had caught up to her, and injected her with something that was making her feel sleepy and stupid. On top of that there were fucking rats in here, and one had just come up and bumped right against her face. She felt the shifter body she was locked into snatching onto the rats DNA, and storing it away. A blueprint for a new thing to masquerade as. How fucking useful, Alice thought to herself. I'm sure I can bring down fucking governments as a god damned rat.  
"Castiel!" she called out loud. "You stupid feather brain! Get someone down here to fucking help me out will you!"  
Nothing happened, and after a few minutes, Alice gave up. Alice Smith was the only one who was going to get Alice Smith out of this. As usual.  
Maybe a rat isn't so useless after all, she thought.

It took the three hunters the better part of three days to figure out where Alice had been transferred to, and to get there. They sent Bobby in to check things out, and maybe set up some kind of FBI thing about wanting to transfer Alice again. Sam and Dean waited out in the car. It was late, almost 9:00, and Dean was slightly surprised that the hospital was still open to visitors. There was silence in the car, and Dean thought it was rather uncomfortable. Both his and Sams eyes were glued to the entrance to the hospital, waiting anxiously for Bobby to come out, which contributed greatly to the tense atmosphere in the car.  
Bobby finally walked out, and they both got out of the car in unison, waiting for him to reach them.  
"Sorry boys, she ain't here," Bobby said.  
"What?" Sam asked.  
"Well where is she then?" Dean asked.  
"Do I look like I know?" Bobby asked. "The therapist found a pile of skin and teeth and nails inside of a straight jacket just a bit more than an hour ago. They're freaking out in there."  
"Wait, so she shifted, and got out?" Dean asked.  
"Must have, but I can't see how she would have done it. They showed me the room she was in, and that doors two inches of solid iron. She wouldn't have been able to get past it," Bobby said.  
"Well she's a ghost, maybe she evacuated Danny and flew out when they opened the door to check on her," Sam said.  
"Then why the hell was there a pile of shifter gunk left in the room Sam?" Dean demanded.  
"I don't know!" Sam said rather loudly.  
"Look, I think we should get back to my place," Bobby said. "I've got a few people I can call, tell them to let me know if they see her or get any leads. How's that sound?"  
Dean didn't think it sounded like the best plan, but he wasn't sure what else he could do, so he shook his head, and got back into the Impala anyways. Sam got in the passenger side, and Dean started going, not caring how far behind Bobby got since they were heading to the same place anyways.  
There was a long silence, until Sam spoke when they were out on the highway, just inside the town limits.  
"Maybe she didn't do anything to get you out anyways," he said.  
"She had to have. And if she didn't, then something really dicked up has to be going on," Dean said.  
"I don't know maybe it was just an accident that you got out of hell," Sam said.  
"An accident? You wouldn't be saying that if you'd seen that damned grave site Sam," Dean said.  
"Maybe that's just what happens if you come back from hell. I mean, it's not like we've ever seen it happen before Dean. Maybe every once in a while, someone just... I don't know. Floats out or something."  
"Sam, just trust me on this, I did not just-"  
"Dean stop!" Sam yelled suddenly, turning in his seat as they blew past the town limits sign.  
"What?" Dean asked.  
"Stop the car! Go back!" Sam said. Dean stopped the car, and put it in reverse.  
"Why?" he asked as he was doing it. Sam didn't bother answering him, since the reason was apparent. There was a naked woman walking along the side of the road, covered in blood.  
"Alice?" Dean said aloud, recognizing her. She was stumbling like she was drunk, and almost falling over every few steps. Dean and Sam got out of the car at the same time, running towards her.  
"Alice?!" Dean asked again, stopping in front of her. She stopped, shaking as her eyes rolling up in her head. She mumbled something that sounded like 'fucking drugs', and then started to tip forward. Dean put a hand on her shoulder to steady her, as Sam took his coat off quickly, hanging it around her shoulders. Dean steered her towards the car, helping her in the back as Bobby caught up with them, stopping and poking his head out the window.  
"What the hell are you idjits doing?" he called to them.  
"We found Alice," Sam called back. Alice was laying down in the backseat, her eyes completely closed now, and her whole body limp.  
"Alice?" Dean asked again, slapping her cheek lightly. She didn't respond, and he felt a fluttering of panic in his chest. He placed his fingers on her neck, feeling for a pulse, and felt a wave of relief wash over him when he found one. "Alice? Hey, Alice, wake up," he said, continuing to slap her lightly, alternating cheeks now.  
"They probably drugged her at the hospital," Sam remarked as Bobby started driving again. "We should get going," Sam said. Dean nodded, lifting Alices head off the seat and climbing in back with her.  
"You drive," he told Sam shortly, letting her shoulders and upper back rest on his lap, and supporting her head with his right arm. She was cold, and he tucked Sams jacket around her, and managed to get his own off with only one arm, draping it over her legs, and shifting her a bit so her feet fit under it as well, before settling back, and looking down at her, feeling an odd mixture of relief and worry. Relief that she was here, she was alright, for the moment at least, and they were together again. He'd missed her more than anything else during his stay in hell. He felt like he understood her just a bit better now.  
And worry as he pondered what she could have possibly done to get him out of hell. Having been there, he would have done anything to get her out if their places had been swapped, but he was now praying that she hadn't sold her soul, even if it was something altogether worse that resulted. He could deal with killer demons. He didn't think he would be able to deal with losing Alice to hell.

* * *

Alice drifted in and out of consciousness, and occasionally, she would feel someone running their hand through her hair, or stroking her cheek. Once she heard someone saying her name, like they were calling her. But even the times when she wasn't out cold, the world was dark, and blurry, and she couldn't see who they were. Their voices sounded distorted, and fuzzy.  
When she finally did wake up for good, she was warm. Her eyes snapped open, and she glanced around, expecting bars, or a padded room and the rank smell of old piss. Instead, she saw red floral wall paper, and the smell of whiskey and paper, and the stars in a dark sky through a window. She sat up in the bed that she'd been put in, the covers falling off of her. She realized that she was in Bobbys house, and smiled, thinking that the old coot had come to get her out after all. She stopped short when her eyes landed on Dean, sitting at the foot of the bed and leaning against the wall, his eyes closed. She took a breath, blinking rapidly as she tried to think... what was she supposed to do? Dean was back from hell, Castiel and the god squad had actually pulled it off... how was she supposed to react?  
She reached out, moving closer to him, needing to touch him, to feel that he was really there, and this wasn't another dream, or hallucination or some cruel demons trick. She was close enough now to touch him, but part of her was afraid to. What if this was just another dream, and she ruined it again, and he disappeared under her fingers like smoke in the wind?  
She ignored those thoughts, touching him softly, and he was still there, even as she trailed her fingers down the side of his face, so lightly she was barely even touching him. It was enough to wake him from his light sleep though, and his eyes snapped open, connecting with hers.  
"You're here," she breathed, a slow smile spreading over her face as it sank in. "You're alive!" she laughed. "Unfortunately," he said, though he too was smiling.  
"Shut up," she said, without any weight in her words. She leaned forward, capturing his lips with hers before he could respond, running her hands through his hair, letting her fingers linger over his pulse just for the sake of feeling the most obvious sign that he was alive.  
He kissed her back, pulling her to him like he was just as much in awe of the fact that he could as she was. They only broke apart when they were both out of breath, and panting, and she rested her forehead against his, smiling as she watched his pupils dilating.  
"I missed you," she whispered. And a part of her still whispered, you're making yourself weak with these feelings. Where do feelings lead? Nowhere good. Death and tears and catastrophe. Be strong, and get the hell off him! She completely ignored it, not giving a fuck for the first time in almost her entire life.  
"I missed you too," he said, stroking her cheek with his thumb.  
"I'm sorry it took so long to get you out. I tried to make it faster, but I couldn't. I'm sorry," she said.  
He paused, and she was close enough to him that she could hear him swallowing, and she could feel it with the hand she still had on his neck, watching his pulse.  
"What did you do Alice?" he asked, and she hated how those five simple words help so much weight, and the expectation that it had been something awful. She realized that he probably thought she'd sold her soul, and having been to hell, would fear and loathe the idea.  
"Don't worry," she said soothingly. "I didn't sell my soul. I didn't do anything."  
"Then how am I out of hell?" he asked.  
"It's a long story. To make it short, you were pulled out by an Angel of the Lord," she said, forcing herself to pull away from him slightly since they were getting down to business now. She had a good idea of how he'd react, and the last thing she wanted to look like was some sort of clingy fool.  
"There's no such thing as Angels," Dean said, standing up to look down at her.  
"Please. You've seen Angels before, in Bisbee," Alice said.  
"Right. I'm not entirely sure what that was, or why you seem to be convinced that Angels exist, or that there's a Lord for them to be Of, but it has to be something else," Dean said.  
"Well, then tell me what you think it is," Alice said.  
"Look, all I know is I was not groped by an Angel," Dean said, beginning to pace.  
"I hope he didn't grope you," Alice said, her eyebrows shooting up.  
"He?" Dean asked.  
"Well they were all racing to get past hells firewall to get your ass out of there, but the one that made it was a he, yeah. Actually, I was surprised to no end because they had the damn Archangels down there trying to get in, and Castiel is... magnitudes less powerful. I guess he slipped past while the rest of hell was busy with the others," Alice said, shrugging. "Okay. Say it's true. Say there are angels. Then what? There's a God?" Dean demanded.  
"You bet your ass there's a God. I met the son of a bitch," Alice said.  
"You met- So basically what you're trying to tell me is that there's a God out there that actually gives a crap about me personally? I'm sorry, but I'm not buying it," Dean said.  
"Why the hell not?" Alice said, standing as she started to get more frustrated.  
"Because why me? If there is a God out there, why would he give a crap about me?" Dean asked.  
Alice was taken aback by that, and not really sure how to respond. "Dean-"  
"I mean, I've saved some people, okay? I figured that made up for the stealing and the ditching chicks. But why do I deserve to get saved? I'm just a regular guy," Dean went on.  
"Apparently, you're a regular guy that's important to the man upstairs," Alice said.  
"Well, that creeps me out. I mean, I don't like getting singled out at birthday parties, much less by... God," Dean said.  
"Okay, well, too bad, Dean, because I think he wants you to strap on your party hat," Alice said in annoyance.  
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dean asked.  
"All of heaven wasn't after your ass just because it's firm Dean," Alice said. "There's something coming that we need to stop, and it's going to take everyone and everything we've got- Angels, hunters, regular people, whatever we can find- to stop it."  
"Yeah? And what would that be?" Dean asked.  
"The apocalypse," Alice replied.  
Dean didn't say anything for a moment while that sunk in. "The apocalypse," he said finally.  
"The apocalypse," Alice repeated.  
"Like the end of days apocalypse? The apocalypse, apocalypse? The four horsemen, pestilence, $5-a-gallon-gas apocalypse?" Dean asked.  
"No, the one with teddy bears and cotton candy. Yes, the apocalypse apocalypse," Alice said in exasperation.  
"So God brought me back because he thinks I can stop the apocalypse?" Dean asked.  
"He had you brought back because he knows you can help to stop it," Alice said.  
There was a long silence, and Alice wasn't sure he was going to say anything else.  
"I need a drink," Dean said finally.  
"I could actually use one too," Alice said, grateful for the break in subject. "What time is it?"  
"Uh... 6:13," Dean said.  
"Bobby's sleeping at 6:13?" Alice asked skeptically.  
"We drove all night," Dean said in his friends defense.  
"Whatever. Think any bars are open?" Alice said.  
"I know there's one in town that stays open 24/7," Dean said.  
"Great, let's get our asses in gear," Alice said. She started towards the door, but backpedaled as she passed a mirror. She held her arms out, looking from herself to him.  
"Whose clothes am I wearing?" she asked.  
"Some of Bobbys old ones," Dean said, scratching the back of his neck.  
She shook her head. "We're stopping at a thrift store or something on the way back," she said as she headed out the door. Dean hesitated, but followed her after a moment, his mind racing with everything he'd just heard. He'd never thought of Angels, and hadn't really given God any thought before either. He'd never had reason to believe either existed. But he had seen something in Bisbee, and he was back from hell. And Alice seemed convinced that they were real. That alone should really have been enough for him, but... he didn't know. It was just a bit too much for him to take all at once. He'd have his drink, think things over, and maybe reconcile all of this with his reality.

* * *

Sam was not, in fact, asleep. He listened to Alice and Deans conversation from around the corner, and waited until they had left in the Impala, before taking one of Bobbys old junky cars and heading out, ending up in a mall parking lot almost a mile away. He only had to wait a few minutes, before another car pulled up, and a brunette woman, the same from his hotel room earlier, stepped out, slamming the door behind her. Sam started towards her.  
"Ruby," he greeted the demon.  
"So, is it true?" Ruby asked.  
"Is what true?" Sam asked.  
"Did an Angel rescue Dean from hell?"  
"You heard," Sam said, surprised.  
"Who hasn't? Someone waltzes out of hell, it draws a lot of attention. Especially when hell's been under seige by a horde of Angels for almost three months," Ruby said.  
"Wait, you knew that Angels were trying to get him out of hell, and you didn't tell me?" Sam asked.  
"I knew there was a seige on hell. How the hell was I supposed to know they were there for Dean?" she demanded. "Now is it true, or is it just stupid rumors that I should be ignoring?"  
"It's true. At least, according to Alice it is," Sam said.  
"Okay. Bye, Sam," Ruby said.  
She started walking away, but Sam grabbed her arm and turned her back to face him.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait. What's going on?" he asked, partly confused, and partly angry at her for the fact that she was just about to walk away from him.  
"Sam, they're Angels. I'm a demon. They're not gonna care if I'm being helpful. They smite first, and then they ask questions later," Ruby said.  
"What do you know about them?" Sam asked.  
"Not much. I've never met one, and I don't really want to. All I know is that they scare the holy hell out of even the biggest demons. Watch yourself, Sam," she said, pulling away from him.  
"I'm not scared of Angels," Sam said.  
Ruby just walked away, leaving Sam alone.

* * *

"So, what have you been doing the whole time I was gone?" Dean asked as they settled down at the bar. They were the only ones there, besides a man and a woman in the farthest corner from them, and the bartender.  
"Not as much as you might think," Alice said, taking a sip of her drink. "Then again, I wasn't allowed to do as much as I would have liked. Just about immediately after you died, I fell apart. And I did something very, very stupid. I prayed to God to get you out of hell."  
"Oh, so you did do something to jump start this whole rescue operation," Dean said.  
Alice shook her head. "They were already working to get you out. All I did was put myself on their radar," she said, her tone implying that was a bad thing. "Anyway, like I said, I tried to make things go more quickly. I even offered to host an Angel again on the chance that I might be able to make it into hell to get you out."  
"Why wouldn't they let you?" Dean asked, confused.  
"It's not that they wouldn't let me. Angelic hosts are in short supply, and they were more than happy to take me up on my offer. But it didn't work," Alice said.  
"Why not?" Dean asked.  
Alice shook her head. "I don't know. But that was a month ago, and I haven't heard from any Angels since then."  
"Right. And was it the Angels that told you that the apocalypse is on it's way?" Dean asked.  
"According to them, it's already begun," she said.  
"Then how are we supposed to stop it?" Dean asked.  
"I'm still working that part out," Alice said.  
"Well maybe they'll get their asses down here and do it for us," Dean said.  
"I doubt it," Alice said.  
"Why? Isn't that the reason they brought me back? So I could help them?" Dean asked.  
"They brought you back because your more use to them up here than down there," Alice said. "At least that's what I figure."  
"It's what you figure?" Dean asked.  
Alice shrugged. "I can't see any other reason for them to have brought you back. But it's not like they revealed their plans to me at all. In fact, just about the only thing I have been told is some shit about playing a role," she said.  
"Such an important part that they were going to leave you rot in a crazy hospital?" Dean asked.  
"Like I said, I haven't heard anything from them since the hosting failed," Alice said.  
"How did you get out of that hospital anyways?" Dean asked.  
"They've got a rat problem. I took advantage of the fact that I had rodents crawling all over me in the best way I could," Alice said.  
"What, you shifted into a rat?" Dean asked.  
"Yep," Alice said.  
"I didn't know shifters could do animals," Dean said.  
"Me neither," Alice said.  
"So-"  
Dean cut off abruptly as the lights in the bar went out.  
"Fucking fuse," he heard the bartender mumble. "Give me a minute people, just don't move," he said.  
"It's not a fuse," Alice said.  
The temperature in the room dropped suddenly, and Dean knew that he would have been able to see his breath if there had been enough light. He heard a creaking from somewhere to his left, and his head whipped around as he stood, trying to get a sense of where he was in the dark bar. There was some light coming in from the windows at the front of the bar, and his eyes started to adjust to the darkness. The bartender was nowhere to be seen, and the two other customers were sitting at their booth, not moving.  
"Alice?" Dean asked.  
"I'm here," she said from farther back in the bar, where it was darker.  
"Can you see in here?" he asked.  
"As well as in broad daylight," she replied.  
"What's going on?" he asked.  
"Nothing. Yet," she said.  
"Hey, can someone get that fuse fixed so I can finish my drink?" the man at the booth asked.  
"Be quiet and stay down if you want to stay alive," Alice said shortly.  
"What?" the woman demanded.  
"She just gave you some million dollar advice. I suggest you follow it," Dean said, moving cautiously towards the back of the bar, and Alice. A quick movement behind the bar caught his eye, and he turned his head in time to see a dark figure disappear into thin air.  
"Come out, come out, whoever you are," Dean said, moving back towards it.  
"Dean Winchester," a womans voice said from behind him. He turned, his eyes having adjusted to the darkness in the bar by now, to see a woman who looked lie she was in her early twenties, with long light brown hair. She looked familiar, but he couldn't place where he'd seen her before.  
"Still so bossy. You don't recognize me?" she asked. "This is what I looked like before that demon cut off my hair and dressed me like a slut."  
Dean realized where he'd seen her before with a start. "Meg?" he asked. She was a demon he'd tangled with about a two years before he'd... died? Wow. That was a weird way to put it.  
"Hi. It's okay, I'm not a demon," she said, smiling.  
"You're the girl the demon possessed," Dean said.  
Alice moved closer, stopping at the booth with the other two customers in it, who were looking about as freaked out as it got.  
"Get out of here, now," she said softly. They didn't respond, just stared at Dean and Meg. Alice moved away from them, looking around desperately for... for what, iron? She couldn't handle iron. Damn the ghost thing was such a pain in the ass.  
"Meg Masters. Nice to finally talk to you when I'm not, you know, choking on my own blood. It's okay. Seriously, I'm just a college girl. Sorry- was. I was walking home one night and got jumped by all this smoke. Next thing you know, I'm a prisoner..." Alice glanced over from behind the bar, in time to see Meg point to her head. "...in here. Now, I was awake. I had to watch while she murdered people."  
"I'm sorry," Dean said.  
"Oh, yeah? So sorry you had me thrown off a building?" Meg demanded. The temperature dropped another few notches, and Alice could tell things were about to go south, fast.  
"Well, we thought-"  
"No, you didn't think! I kept waiting, praying! I was trapped in there screaming at you! "Just help me, please!" You're supposed to help people, Dean. Why didn't you help me?" Meg demanded, distraught.  
"I'm sorry," Dean said, and Alice could tell she was getting to him.  
"Stop saying you're sorry!" Meg yelled at him. Alice heard the sharp sound of a slap, and a thump as Dean hit the floor. The woman in the booth made a sound, and the man covered her mouth over with his hand, keeping her silent. I would say he's got sense, if he would get his ass up and run, Alice thought. Her eyes flew back to Dean and Meg as she kicked him in the gut.  
"We didn't know," he groaned from the ground.  
"No... You just attacked. Did you ever think there was a girl in here? No. You just charged in, slashing and burning. You think you're some kind of hero?" Meg asked.  
"No, I don't," Dean said.  
"You're damn right," Meg said, bending over and hauling Dean to his feet by his jacket. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be ridden for months by pure evil... while your family has no idea what happened to you?" Meg asked.  
"I'm sure he did the best he could," Alice said, stepping out from behind the bar. There was no iron in here, and even if there was, what was she going to do with it?  
"Who are you?" she demanded roughly, letting Dean fall back down again, and turning to face Alice. Dean winced, and got back to his feet, behind her, digging through his pockets.  
"A friend," Alice said soothingly.  
"I don't have any more friends," Meg said bitterly. "I'm dead, and they're grieving for me!"  
"And that's the demons fault, isn't it?" Alice said.  
Meg faltered, and Alice latched onto it. "It's all her fault Meg. She was the one who possessed you, she was the one who did all of those horrible things. She killed people, right? And you had to watch. I know what that's like," Alice said.  
"How could you?" Meg demanded.  
"I've been possessed before. It's awful, I know. But Dean, he was just trying to make it all stop," Alice said. "He couldn't have let that demon keep killing people. He did the best he could."  
Meg was silent for a moment, and Alice saw Dean grab something off of the table behind him.  
"But it wasn't just me that Dean could have saved if he'd tried a bit harder," Meg said quietly. "I had a sister. A little sister. She worshiped me. You know how little siblings are, right? How they'll do anything for you. She was never the same after I disappeared. She just... she just got lost. And when my body was lying in the morgue beat-up and broken..."  
"Meg," Dean said from behind her. She turned on him, her anger rekindled.  
"Do you know what that did to her? She killed herself!" Meg hit Dean again, knocking him back against the wall. "Because of you, Dean! Because all you were thinking about was your family, your revenge, and your demons! 50 words of Latin a little sooner, and I'd still be alive. My baby sister would still be alive. That blood is on your hands, Dean!" she said, kicking him over and over again.  
"Meg, stop!" Alice yelled, but Meg didn't listen. Alice launched herself at the ghost, surprised when she connected with her, and they both toppled to the ground. Meg cried out as well, as Alice struggled to hold her.  
"What are you?" she demanded.  
"Meg, stop this! Think for a minute! It wasn't Deans fault, it was the demons!" Alice said. She could hear Dean coughing from in the corner, and pounding footsteps as the man and the woman finally fled the bar.  
"Demons lie!" Meg screamed.  
"What?" Alice demanded, taken aback.  
"You all lie! She lied! The one in the suit lied! And you're lying too!" Meg hit her in the face, and rolled away as Alice pursued her. Dean stood behind her, leaning heavily against the wall and unscrewing the top off of a salt shaker, the item he'd grabbed off the table. Alice realized what he was doing, and threw herself to the side as he flung it's contents as Meg. Meg screamed, before disappearing. The lights came back on in the bar, and Alice stared at the space where she'd been, her mind racing. Had Meg thought she was a demon? Why would she think that? Alice wasn't a demon. Maybe Meg sensed that Danny was possessed, and assumed that Alice was a demon since she was the one possessing him. That must be it, she decided.  
"There we go. I've got to remember to-" the bartender walked back in, cutting off abruptly as he took in the turned over tables, and spilled drinks and salt.  
"What the hell happened here?" he demanded of Alice, who stood and walked over to Dean.  
"You okay?" she asked, ignoring the bartender.  
"Yeah," he said, nodding as he clutched his ribs. He looked good, other than a split lip.  
"Does anything feel broken?" she asked, prying his hands away from his ribs and lifting his shirt up to see bruises already starting to spread over his abdomen.  
"No, I'm good," he said, and she let go of him as he took his weight away from the wall. "Let's get out of here."  
Alice nodded, following him as he walked out of the bar.  
"Hey, you aren't going anywhere until you tell me what the hell happened here," the bartender said, grabbing Alices arm and spinning her around to face him. Alice twisted, and he gasped as something in his arm cracked. She let her retinas flare and he gazed at her in pure fear.  
"If I were you, I'd forget that we were here," she said threateningly, before walking out after Dean, leaving the man staring after them.


	4. Chapter 4

"So I'm guessing she was a case you worked a while back?" Alice asked Dean as she closed the drivers side door. Dean handed her the keys from the passenger seat, and she started the car up.  
"A while before I met you," Dean said. "Before Dad died."  
"Did you burn her body?" Alice asked.  
"No," Dean said.  
"That was sloppy," Alice remarked.  
"We were busy with other things, we didn't have time too salt and burn her," Dean snapped. "Whatever. We'll get back to Bobbys, find out where she's buried and take care of it properly," Alice said.  
Dean just nodded, and neither of them spoke again until they pulled up to Bobbys house. Sam had had to tinker with Bobbys spells and wards some to let Alice in earlier, but Alice still stopped short as they approached the front door. It was almost 8:00 now, and the sun was shining brightly, but there was a chill in the air that made Dean shiver.  
"Alice?" he asked. "You okay?"  
"Yeah. I just... I don't know. Something feels off," Alice said. "I guess-" She cut off, turning to look back at the gate as one of Bobbys cars came roaring in, skidding to a stop a few feet behind the Impala. Sam stumbled out, his hair in his face, and covered in black dust.  
"Sam," Dean said in surprise. "What-"  
"You'll never believe who I ran into just now," Sam panted as he hurried over.  
"Who?" Alice asked.  
"Agent Henricksen," Sam said.  
"He's dead," Alice said.  
"Yeah, but apparently he's back, and he blames us for his death," Sam said.  
"Great," Dean said, turning to Alice. "Now we've got two pissed off ghosts out to get us."  
"What?" Sam asked. "Did I miss something?"  
"Yeah, but-"  
Alice cut off, her head whipping around to look at the house as someone screamed from within.  
"Bobby," Dean said.  
Dean and Sam both headed for the front door, and Alice followed, closing the door softly behind them.  
"I'll take the upstairs," she mouthed to Dean. He nodded, and motioned for Sam to take go with her, and started for the kitchen, but stopped at the sound of a thump that was definitely coming from the upstairs. He turned, following Sam and Alice up the staircase. Sam started opening doors when he got to the top, and Alice headed down another hallway, realizing that she still didn't have anything on her to fight ghosts with. Iron bullets worked fine, because she didn't have to touch them, she'd found, or knives, if she wrapped the handles securely and was a bit careful around them. As for salt, it was just a pain in her ass, period, especially when it came to what she could and couldn't eat. She threw another door open, stepping inside quickly to see Singer, cornered by two little girls who looked around ten years old. They turned to look at her, and Alice heard the door swing shut behind her with a thump.  
"Dean!" Alice yelled as one of the girls held a hand out towards her. Bobby darted to the side, and Alice saw what he was trying to reach, an iron poker, but the other girl held her hand up, and he went flying in the opposite direction. Alice steeled herself to go flying as well, but nothing happened, and the girl looked at her, puzzled.  
"You're one of us," she said, flickering and reappearing right in front of Alice.  
"No, she's one of them," the other one said. Alice realized they were identical. Twins. The only way she could see to tell them apart was by the bows on the fronts of their white dresses, one being pink, and the other blue. "Can't you feel her? She's bad," the one who'd thrown Bobby to the side, Pink Bow, said.  
"Are you one of them, or one of us?" Blue Bow asked.  
"I don't know what you're asking me," Alice said. Her eyes flicked to Bobby momentarily, who was inching back towards the poker now that Alice held both of the girls attention.  
"Are you one of us, or are you a demon?" Blue Bow asked, stepping towards her. Pink Bow stepped closer as well. Alice forced herself to keep her eyes away from Bobby, and backed up a step, hoping to keep their attention on her until he could get the poker.  
"I'm a ghost," Alice said.  
"She's not a ghost," Pink Bow said.  
"She is, at least a little bit," Blue Bow said.  
"She's a monster, one that isn't dead," Pink Bow said, poking her as if to prove that she was made of solid matter.  
"What did you mean when you asked me if I was a demon?" Alice asked, more out of genuine curiosity than simple distraction.  
"Alice?" she heard Deans voice on the other side of the door. He wiggled the handle and then, from the sound of things, started trying to kick the door in. Subtle, Alice thought.  
"The most evil things," Blue Bow said, ignoring the door, which was jumping in it's frame.  
"With the black eyes," Pink Bow said.  
"Why would you think I'm one of them?" Alice asked. Bobby had the poker in hand, but Alice shook her head at him, wanting to know more before the girls disappeared. Bobby pursed his lips, keeping the poker raised and ready to strike, but he didn't hit either of them.  
"You look like one," Pink Bow said.  
"No she does not," Blue Bow argued.  
"Really look at her," Pink Bow said. Blue Bow squinted at her, and then tipped her head to the side.  
"You're right, she does look a bit like one," she said.  
"What does that mean, I look like one?" Alice demanded.  
"Your soul has been blackened," they said together. They each reached for one of her hands, and she jerked them away, but they grabbed them, and Pink Bow caught her eyes, holding them.  
"Watch," she ordered.  
The entire world went dark for a moment, and when Alice could see again, she was standing at the edge of a cliff, one of the girls holding onto each of her hands. The air was scorching, and smelled of death and burning flesh. It hurt to breath because of all the smoke, and the air was filled with screams and shrieks of pure agony. Alice gasped, and tried to take a step back from the precipice, but the girls held her in place.  
"Watch," Pink Bow ordered again as Blue Bow pointed off the edge of the cliff.  
"Why did you bring me here?" Alice demanded, trying to pull away in terror.  
"Watch," they said together, jerking her forward suddenly, and Alice didn't even have time to cry out before she was leaning over the edge of the cliff, held up only by the two girls. Alice clenched her eyes shut.  
"It's not real. I'm not back. This isn't Hell," she told herself out loud, clenching her eyes shut. The burning and the smoke hurt them anyway.  
"Open your eyes and look," Blue Bow ordered.  
"This is what you are," Pink Bow said.  
"This is what you always were," Blue Bow said.  
"This is all you are destined to be," Pink Bow said.  
"Now look!" Blue Bow ordered.  
"No! I won't!" Alice insisted, trying to pull herself back up. "Let me out!"  
Their hands were gone from hers suddenly, and she was falling over the edge of the cliff, screaming.  
Alice hit the floor back in Bobbys house, and sprang to her feet immediately, eyes wide, breathing heavily.  
"Alice? Alice! Hey!" Dean said, stepping forward. Alice looked around, seeing that both girls were gone, and the door hadn't been broken down, so Bobby must have let Sam and Dean in. "Alice! Are you okay?" Dean asked.  
"Y-yeah. I'm fine," Alice said, shaking her head to clear it.  
"What the hell happened?" Dean asked.  
"I'm not really sure. Who were those kids?" Alice asked Bobby.  
"Robina and Francine Telsley. They were part of a case I worked back when I first started hunting. They were phsycics, the real thing," Bobby said.  
"And you killed them?" Sam asked.  
"No, the thing I was hunting got to them before I could," Bobby said.  
"So four ghosts, all people we know who died because of something we did all show up on the same day? That's just a bit to much coincidence for me," Dean said.  
"What do you mean four ghosts, there were only two of them," Bobby said.  
"I ran into Henricksen while I was out... getting some supplies," Sam said.  
"And we ran into Meg Masters in a bar in town," Dean said.  
"Meg the demon?" Bobby asked.  
"No, the girl she was possessing," Alice said.  
"What are you thinking, some kind of curse?" Bobby asked.  
"Could be," Sam said. "If it is, we might not have time to do all the research we need to get it sorted out."  
"I got an idea. Grab all the books on the table in that room down the hall, the one with the yellow walls, and meet me downstairs," Bobby said.  
"What are you going to do?" Alice asked.  
"Get some stuff," Bobby said, before walking out of the room.  
"I know which room he means," Sam said, following him out. Alice started out after him, but Dean put a hand on her arm, stopping her.  
"Are you sure you're okay? You were saying something about hell," he said.  
"I'm fine Dean," Alice assured him. "Let's go get those books, and see what Bobbys up to." Dean nodded, and walked out, and Alice followed him. In truth, she was a bit shaken. She'd hoped that she'd never have to see hell again, but that didn't bother her nearly as much as the fact that all of these ghosts thought she was a demon. She knew that she was damned, she'd known that for a long time, but that was a far cry from actually being a demon. Demons were pure evil, all they wanted was death and destruction for it's own sake. She didn't want that, so she couldn't be a demon.  
But you were in hell for a few hundred years by hells clock, part of her whispered. Maybe you started turning. It isn't out of the question.  
Alice clenched her jaw, shaking her head again. She couldn't be. She just couldn't. And she had to hold onto that.  
They grabbed all of the books out of the room that Sam led them to, and carried them downstairs, where Bobby was waiting, holding two crates, one stacked on top of the other.  
"It's this way," Bobby said.  
They didn't question what 'it' was, but followed him down into his basement, all the way to the back, to a door that Alice could tell was solid iron. Bobby opened it, and stepped into a circular room, the walls of which were constructed of iron, and went up a good twenty feet. The ceiling was a grate, beyond which was a fan that Alice guessed was for ventilation, which would mean the room was otherwise practically airtight when the door was shut. The walls were covered in symbols and runes, and there was a devils trap just outside of, and also inside of the door.  
"What is this place?" Dean asked as he, Bobby and Sam stepped inside.  
"Panic room," Bobby replied. "The walls are two feet of solid iron, coated in rock salt. Completely ghost and demon proof, and the runes ward off most monsters."  
"When did you have time to do all this?" Sam asked as Bobby began clearing off a desk.  
"I had a weekend off," Bobby said. Sam and Dean just stared at him. "What?" he asked after a moment.  
"Bobby, you are awesome," Dean said, grinning.  
"Yeah, it's great work, but I can't get in," Alice said, putting her books down on the floor, eyeing the devils trap outside of the door apprehensively. She never thought that she'd have to worry about devils traps. But then, since she'd gotten back, she'd handled holy water and read exorcisms and drawn plenty of devils traps. Shouldn't that just prove that she wasn't a demon, and all of these ghosts were either wrong, or lying?  
She decided to stay out of the trap for now, just in case. It'd be an interesting thing to test, when there weren't so many hunters who might want to do something about her standing right there, watching.  
"Right, you can just wait out there, can't ya?" Bobby asked. "I mean, you're a ghost yourself, and those two girls didn't seem too interesting in killing you."  
"Meg didn't really seem like she wanted anything to do with you either," Dean said.  
"Okey dokey," Alice said as Sam grabbed her stack of books, and took it into the room with him, leaving a few books for Alice to search through. Alice crouched down on the ground close to the door as the other hunters started to get settled comfortably with their books. There was a bed, a desk, and a spare chair in the room. Dean was camping out on the bed with a stack of books on witchcraft involving controlling spirits, Sam was on the floor with his back to Alice, and Bobby was sitting at the desk, opening a truly enormous book that claimed to contain everything ever said about, or relating to ghosts. Alice could tell that unless someone got very lucky, this would take a while.  
Alice picked up a book from the pile that Sam had left her, and started on the chapter concerning spells to control ghosts.  
It wasn't long, maybe a half hour, before Alice heard a thump on the staircase, and looked up from her book, placing it to the side and standing.  
"Which one do you think it is this time?" Dean asked, standing as well. Bobby unstacked the crates that he'd brought in, pulling a rifle out of the bottom one, and handing it to Dean.  
"Pass that to Sam," he said, fishing another one out. "It's already loaded."  
"Don't I get one?" Alice asked.  
"Yeah, gimme a minute, the other ones aren't loaded," Bobby said.  
Alice watched the basement warily, and saw a flicker of movement in the corner. She'd discovered recently that Shifters could actually see very well in the dark, almost better than they could in daylight, but it was something you had to switch to, like a setting in your brain, and she was blind for a few seconds while the change was being made.  
She stumbled back as soon as she could see again, dodging a punch that had been thrown at her. Whichever ghost this was, it seemed to have decided to she was a problem.  
"Meg?" she asked, sidestepping again, and dodging a bit further away from the door, and the ghost as well. Now that she wasn't dodging blows, she could see the ghosts face, and she lost her concentration for a moment.  
"Gran?" she asked.  
"Alice dear," her grandmother said, smiling as she stepped closer. She looked exactly as she had in life, straight grey hair framing a face that was traced with wrinkles and frown lines from worrying. She had a thin, athletic frame, muscular for a woman of 58, and definitely in better shape than most other people her age, her physique shaped by decades of hunting things that were faster and stronger, and a thousand times more ruthless than she was.  
"What are you doing here? I burned you, like you always said to do," Alice said, recovering some of her wits and knowing that if this really was her grandmother, she would definitely try to help them undo whatever spell was sending ghosts back to haunt the people who had killed them. If there was a spell at all.  
"Yes you did. That was good work. I always knew you'd do good on your own," her grandmother said, still smiling, a bit too serenely for Alice to have liked.  
"Why are you here? Is a spell bringing you back?" Alice asked. Her grandmother flickered, and disappeared.  
"No Alice," her voice came from behind her. Alice dodged to the side again, whirling around to face her grandmother again. They were behind some barrels now, out of sight of the door to the panic room.  
"Tell me what gran," Alice asked. "Tell me so I can put you back to rest."  
"You know I'd love that more than anything Alice, but I can't tell you," her grandmother said.  
"Why not?" Alice demanded, dancing back a few more steps to try and keep a good distance between her grandmother and herself.  
"Alice? What's going on out there?" Sam called.  
"Do you have that gun loaded yet?" Alice yelled back as she dodged again, backing into sight of the door again.  
"Yes," Dean said, holding it up for her to see.  
Her grandmother disappeared again, and reappeared to her left, and Alice didn't move quickly enough to dodge her blow this time, and it sent her flying back again to hit against the wall opposite the door. She groaned, and tried to stand, but her grandmother was there, hauling her up by her neck.  
"You're a smart girl Alice," she said, her face expressionless. "You can figure it out." Her eyes flitted to her hand, and Alice followed them as she struggled to pry her grandmothers hand away from her throat. There was a symbol there, and Alice met her grandmothers eyes as she realized what it was.  
"Send me back Alice. I was somewhere better," her grandmother said. Alices vision started to dim around the edges, and she could feel herself started to lose consciousness, even as she fought to keep it with very fiber in her being.  
Just before she thought that she couldn't hold out any longer, a gunshot sounded, and her grandmother disappeared. Alice fell to the ground as she felt a pain in her arm. She dragged in a ragged breath, torn between screaming at the pain in her arm, and not having breath enough with which to scream.  
"Alice? What just happened? Who the hell was that? Are you okay?" Dean asked, running over to her, Sam and Bobby following close behind.  
"Oh FUCK! Didn't anyone ever tell you that bullets go through ghosts?! Whose FUCKING bright idea was it to shoot her, while I was on the other side?!" Alice demanded.  
"She's fine," Sam told Bobbby.  
"Shut up! Ah, DAMN IT!" Alice screamed. She was pretty sure what she was going to see if she looked at her arm, and she wasn't keen on seeing it. She looked anyways though, and let out a whole nother volley of swears once she did. Shot guns were nasty, and it looked like the bullet from this one had hit one of the bones in her arm at a bad angle, and there was currently a sharp splinter of pale bone visible from an arm that was hanging on literally by a thread.  
"Right, we've gotta get that bleeding stopped," Bobby said, stepping towards her.  
"Back the fuck off Singer, no one's doing anything!" Alice snapped, pulling herself more towards the wall, and screaming at the pain from that movement.  
"That arm's gone Smith, the best we can do is keep your ass from bleeding out," Bobby said, trying to get at her again.  
"D-doesn't matt-ter," Alice stuttered, feeling shock start to set in. "I'll shift, and it'll be fixed."  
"I don't think it works like that Alice," Dean said quietly.  
"Trust me, it does," Alice said, somewhat calmly. "If I could have a bit of FUCKING PRIVACY?!" she yelled at them again.  
"Alice, don't be stupid, I'm not letting you-"  
"Let her try Dean," Bobby said, pulling him back from her. "Just let her try."  
Dean was torn, and Alice could see it. "Get the hell out of here so I can do this before I bleed to death," she spat at them. Sam and Bobby turned, and headed back into the panic room, leading Dean with them, who kept glancing back at Alice. Alice shot him what she hoped was a reassuring smile, though it probably came out as more of a pained grimace, before Bobby closed the door to the panic room.  
Dean could still hear Alices screams from outside the room, and they killed him. He paced, his hands clasped behind his back as worry and guilt knawed at him. He knew that ghosts didn't catch bullets, and he should have known what would happen if he fired that shot with Alice right in it's path. He could have shot her in the head and killed her, if this wasn't bad enough. What if this didn't work, and she died in the middle of trying to shift.  
Alice stopped screaming rather abruptly, and Dean stopped his pacing in front of the door, watching it anxiously. A few minutes passed, before he heard Alices voice from the other side of the door.  
"Okay, I'm good," she said. Dean opened the door quickly, to see Alice standing just outside, wearing the same clothes she had before. The clothes had blood all over them, and Dean tried to ignore that, as well as the fact that there were small pieces of skin stuck to them.  
"You don't have to hug me," she said, looking down at herself. Dean remembered why she'd needed to shift in the first place, and looked at her arm, letting out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was completely whole.  
"Well I'll be damned," Bobby said, stepping out of the room to look at Alices arm. "Guess I don't know as much about shifters as I thought."  
"You must not," Alice said.  
"Alice, I'm sorry, I didn't think-"  
"Yeah, that's one of the big problems with you," Alice interrupted Dean acidly. "But, no lasting harm done. I'm fine, arms and all. So if you start moping or pulling out any solemn emo crap on me, I'll punch you," she said.  
"Oh. Awesome," Dean said, not sure if it was an 'I forgive you' kind of Alice Statement, or an 'I'll kill you after we figure the ghost thing out' kind of Alice Statement.  
"Anyway, I know what's going on, and it isn't a curse," Alice said.  
"What is it then?" Sam asked.  
"The Rising of the Witnesses. One of the Sixty-Six Seals of the apocalypse," Alice said.


	5. Chapter 5

"The what?" Sam asked. "Did you say apocalypse? As in-"  
"Yes, as in the apocalypse apocalypse, with five dollar a gallon gas and whatever the hell else your stereotypical end of days involves," Alice said. "Before I have to explain what the Sixty-Six Seals are to you people, because I can tell you don't know about them just from looking at you, we need to figure out some way to keep these suckers away from me."  
"Right. That shouldn't be too hard," Sam said. Alice thought he was being sarcastic, but he turned and walked into the panic room, dug around in one of Bobbys crates, and came back out with a box of salt. He then proceeded to make a wide circle of it around Alice, before stepping back into the panic room. Alice inspected the circle, and then nodded.  
"Good work," she said.  
"So, Sixty Seals?" Dean prompted her.  
"Sixty-Six," Alice corrected. "And there's a bit of a back story to them. You all know that the Devil, Lucifer, is an Archangel who fell from heaven, and was locked away in the deepest part of hell by the Archangel Micheal?"  
"Umm... I've heard of something like that," Sam said. Dean just looked lost, and Bobby nodded.  
"I've read biblical lore along those lines," he said. "If I'm remembering it right, Micheal chained him in a special prison down there, and set up Sixty-Six Seals which would have to be broken before he could be freed."  
"Pretty much. Except that there are hundreds of Seals, not just Sixty-Six. It's just that to get him out, only Sixty-Six of the Seals need to be broken for Lucy to be freed."  
"Lucy?" Dean asked.  
"It's Lucifers nickname," Alice explained.  
"Oh, so I suppose that since you've met god, you must have run into Satan while you were there," Dean said.  
"Wait, she's met God?" Sam asked.  
"There's a God?" Bobby asked.  
"Yes there's a God, yes I've met him, once, and no, I've never met the Devil," Alice said.  
"Then how do you know his nickname?" Dean asked.  
"I used to host an Angel, remember? Well, she was his technically his sister. She knew his nickname, and it was one of the things I picked up on while I was hosting her," Alice said.  
"Alright, so anyway, this Rising of the Witnesses is a Seal?" Sam asked.  
"Yes," Alice said. "See, none of these people died what you'd call ordinary deaths. These are spirits who were forced to rise. They woke up in agony, and now they're like rabid dogs. It isn't their fault. Someone rose them on purpose. The basic idea is that the human witnesses to supernatural events that didn't survive will come back to avenge their blood on the living."  
"Who rose them?" Sam asked.  
"Who knows? But whoever it was used a spell so powerful it left a mark, a brand on their souls. That's how I know what this is, I saw the brand on my grandmother," Alice said.  
"She was your grandmother?" Dean asked. Alice nodded.  
"Great. So we've got a whole posse of ghosts out there who want our heads on sticks. Sounds fun," Dean said.  
"Oh god," Bobby said, seeming to realize something. "I got a friend one state over, Olivia Lowry. I gave her a few calls while we were driving to New Breten to see if she had anything on Alice. I thought it was odd that she was ignoring that many calls, it isn't like her."  
"Olivia Lowry. A hunter, right? Sam asked.  
Bobby nodded.  
"You think that she's got ghosts after her," Alice said.  
"Could be. Or she could just be out on a hunt, or... something," Bobby said. "Ghosts don't usually go after hunters, and if someone is after her, she might not realize what's going on until it's too late."  
"It might not be just her either," Dean said. "If these ghosts are popping up all over, then a lot of hunters might be in danger. We have to get the word out, warn them!"  
"I've got a better idea," Alice said.  
"What?" Sam asked.  
"Why don't we just end it all, and send all of the ghosts back to where they were before they were being used to break the Seal?" Alice asked.  
"You can do that?" Sam asked.  
"I think so, there should be a ritual for it. I'm not sure at all what it is, so we'd have to dig back in and do some more research, but yeah, it should send all of them back, no matter how far away from us they are."  
"Will that redo the Seal so the Devil stays in his... box, and the apocalpse doesn't happen?" Dean asked.  
"No. The Seal has been broken. We can send the ghosts back, but it's still going to be one less Seal that has to be broken to free Lucy," Alice said.  
"You know, it's kind of creepy when you use an affectionate nickname for Satan," Sam said.  
"Sorry, force of habit," Alice said.  
"So how in the hell are we going to find the ritual?" Bobby asked. "If we leave this room, chances are we'll get shredded by our friends out there."  
"I'll go. Give me a gun, and if you have any iron knives, I'll take one of this if you wrap the handle with something so I don't end up touching it," Alice said.  
"What? Not a chance, I'll go," Dean said.  
"Dean, as I have just demonstrated, I can survive serious injuries with minimal damage. If your hand gets ripped off, can you heal it?" Alice asked. Dean just frowned at her helplessly. "I didn't think so. Gun? Knife?"  
"I didn't pack an iron knife, but I have got a poker," Bobby said, holding it up while Sam took a gun and started loading it. It was a shotgun, which would slow her down a bit, but it was better than nothing. And hopefully, the only ghost after her would be her grandmother, and she seemed to be trying to fight whatever spell had been used, and was therefore a bit slower than Alice suspected the others would be.  
"Fine, it'll do," Alice said. "Just wrap the handle up very tightly."  
"It's aready wrapped," Bobby said, handing it to Alice. Alice took it by the handle, which was rubber.  
"Okay, convenient," Alice said. Sam finished loading the shot gun, and handed it to her, before leaning back into the panic room.  
"Do you even know what you're looking for?" Dean asked.  
"Yeah, an untranslated version of the New Testament," Alice said. "You wouldn't happen to have one, would you Bobby?" she asked.  
"Well as a matter of fact, I do," he said. "It's on the second floor, the door all the way in the back. I think it's on the second bookshelf to the right, but I'm not sure," he said.  
"Right. Wish me luck," Alice said. She pointed at the salt circle. "And let me out of here."  
"Hang on a minute, if it's untranslated, how are we going to read the spell?" Sam asked as he stepped out of the panic room, quickly sweeping away a section of the circle with his hand, before stepping back inside.  
"I read Greek," Alice said, walking off.  
"Alice," Dean called, and she turned to look at him. He didn't know what he thought he was going to say. I'm sorry? I love you? Don't get killed? "Be careful," he finally settled on.  
"Aren't I always?" she asked, before disappearing around the barrels. He heard the basement door closing, and took a step back from the doorway of the room shaking his head.  
"See, this is why I can't get behind God," he said.  
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked.  
"If he doesn't exist, fine. Bad crap happens to good people. That's how it is. There's no rhyme or reason, just random, horrible, evil- I get it, okay. I can roll with that. But if he is out there, what's wrong with him? Where the hell is he while all these decent people are getting torn to shreds? How does he live with himself? You know, why doesn't he help?" Dean demanded, though he didn't expect either of them to have an answer for him.

* * *

Alice didn't bother to try to be quiet as she walked down the hall into the room Bobby had indicated. She left the door open deliberately, in case she needed to run, which she had no doubt that she would.

She turned suddenly, lashing out with the poker and watching as her grandmother vanished again. One pro to actually being a ghost, you could tell when there were other ghosts in the room with you.  
Alice went back to searching the book shelf that Bobby had told her about, and cursed when she found the book wasn't there. She spun around again, sensing another ghost in the room with her, but rather than seeing her grandmother, she saw Agent Henricksen.  
"Henricksen," she said, faltering for a moment in surprise.  
"Hi Alice. It's been a while," Henricksen said.  
"Yeah. Are you here to skin me, or would you mind helping me look for something?" Alice asked hopefully.  
"You do know that I died after you left," Henricksen said.  
"I'm sorry about that," Alice said.  
"You know, I'm not entirely sure that you are," he said.  
"Look, if we'd known Lilith was coming-"  
"You wouldn't have left half a dozen innocent people in that police station to die in your place. You did this to me. It was your fault. She was after you, and I paid the price. You left us there to die!" He charged at her, and she swiped at him with the poker, not wanting to waste bullets unless she had too. He stopped just before he would have run into the poker, and dodged back a few steps as Alice went on the offensive, striding forward and stabbing with the poker, watching in satisfaction as he disappeared.  
"Did you forget what I taught you about keeping your back to a wall while fighting multiple opponents who can disappear and reappear in an instant?" her grandmothers voice came from behind her, annoyed this time. Alice ducked instinctively, rolling away as her grandmother came towards her.  
"No Gran," she said, backing up as her grandmother kept coming towards her. "Now, I need a book, an untranslated version of the New Testament. Can you help me find it?"  
Her grandmother smiled. "Now you're talking. It's in the corner over there," she said, pointing as she lunged towards Alice again, running straight into the poker. Alice wasn't sure if being dead had made her rusty, or if she'd done it on purpose, but she didn't spend much time pondering the issue. Alice ran to the corner she'd pointed to, already feeling about presence in the room. She grabbed the only book there, and then turned, firing the shotgun and watching someone dissolve, though she wasn't sure whether it was her Grandmother, Henricksen, or someone else coming back to haunt her. She ran out into the hall, hoping to be able to get back to the basement without a lot more complications.

* * *

Dean looked up from where he was sitting on the bed as he heard a gunshot. "Salt?" he asked, and Bobby handed him a box of it. He waited by the door, hearing three more gunshots, and then pounding footsteps, and a scream. Then there was a bang that wasn't a gun shot, and he heard Alice yelling as there were several thumps that sounded like someone being throws down the stairs. There was another gunshot, and the clang of metal dropping to the ground, and then Alice ran around the barrels into his line of sight, clutching a book against her chest, pursued by... Henricksen?  
"Dean! Salt line!" she yelled as she grew nearer. Dean ran out of the panic room, stopping at the side of the salt ring that Sam had broke, and starting to fill it back in. Alice ran past him just before he filled the last gap, and Henricksen vanished as he ran up against the salt line. Alice stopped as abruptly as if she'd hit a brick wall on the other side of the circle, falling over inside of it, gasping for breath.  
"You got it?" Sam asked from just inside the panic room.  
"Yeah... I got it," Alice said, holding the book up.  
"Do you know where exactly the spell is in there?" Dean asked, eyeing the substantially sized book.  
"Give me a minute to catch my breath," Alice said grumpily. She sat up never the less, and opened the book.  
"Besides it being somewhere in Revalations, I have no clue."  
"So why did you need the untranslated version instead of just any old bible?" Dean asked.  
"The widely distributed version's just for tourists," Bobby said, surprising Dean. "The untranslated version actually has a lot of stuff in it that they left out of the translated ones."  
"Oh, okay," Dean said. He sat down on the ground next to Alice as she opened the book, and started flipping the pages, just skimming it instead of trying to read the entire thing through. After a few minutes, she stopped, grinning and tapping the page.  
"Found it. It looks like it's actually a spell rather than a ritual, but whatever. It should put all of the witnesses back to rest," Alice said.  
"Should. Great," Sam said.  
"Let me see... Hemlock, opium, wormwood... racoon tail? Ick. Oh, and three saints fingernails," Alice said.  
"Is that all?" Bobby asked.  
"Yep," Alice said.  
"Well I've got all that stuff in the house," Bobby said.  
"Opium?" Dean asked.  
"It's not for recreational purposes idjit," Bobby said.  
"Is there any chance you got everything we need in that room?" Dean said, pointing at the panic room.  
"So, you thought our luck was gonna start now all of a sudden?" Bobby said, and Dean shrugged.  
"You never know," he said.  
"Wouldn't matter anyway," Alice said. "The spell has to be cast over an open fire."  
"The fireplace in the library," Sam said.  
"Bingo," Bobby said.  
"That's just not as appealing as a, uh, ghost-proof panic room, you know?" Dean said.  
"We don't have a choice here," Alice said grimly. "You guys in there load up the shotguns, and we'll make a run for the library. Bobby, you can cast the spell, me and Sam can run around finding the ingredients, and Dean can stay and keep the ghosts off your ass," Alice said.  
"Not a chance. I'm not just going to sit around in a circle of salt waiting for you and Sam to bring back ingredients," Dean said. "You can stay and watch Bobby's ass, and I'll get the ingredients."  
"My arguement about being able to heal more easily from more severe wounds still stands," Alice said.  
"Just because you can heal more easily than I can doesn't give you an excuse to coddle me," Dean said.  
"I'm not-"  
"Hey, cut it out, both of you," Bobby said. "I can take care of my own self just fine, thank you very much. All three of you can go and get stuff, it'll take less time, and I've got all that stuff in three different places around the house anyways."  
"Sounds good," Sam said before either Alice or Dean could say anything else. "Dean, come help us load shot guns," he said, walking back to where Bobby was unloading more shells out of his crate. Alice handed Dean the gun she'd taken up with her as he passed. The hunters were silent as they loaded the guns with salt filled shells, and Alice waited impatiently, tapping her foot, her eyes darting around. She was relieved when Bobby finally stood, and spoke.  
"Cover each other. And aim careful. Don't run out of ammo until I'm done, or they'll shred you. Ready?" he said. Dean and Sam both nodded, before walking out of the room. Sam handed Alice a gun as he passed her, and they headed out around the barrels, to see a ghost sitting on the stairs, a young man in his early 20s with curly hair.  
"Hey, Dean. You remember me?" he said.  
"Ronald, huh? With the laser eyes? I wish I could say it's good to see you," Dean said.  
"I am dead because of you. You were supposed to help me!" Ronald said. Bobby shot at him, and he disappeared.  
"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk," Bobby said. Alice picked up the poker that she'd dropped in her earlier fight with Hericksen before following them up the stairs.  
Alice had to admit to herself that she did hold a kind of grudging respect for Bobby Singer. He was a great hunter, and she now suspected that he had more brains than she'd guessed the first time she'd say him.  
They made their way to the library/living room, and Same made a salt circle around the fireplace as Dean started to get a fire going.  
"Okay, Alice, just down the hall from the kitchen, the door across from the guest bedroom with the pink walls, there's a bathroom. There's a loose tile there by the sink, and there's a box behind it. Go get it," he said. Alice nodded, and moved off, taking the poker and a gun with her. Sam finished the salt line, and Bobby turned to him.  
"Upstairs, linen closet, red hex box. It'll be heavy," Bobby said.  
"Got it," Sam said, running into the hall.  
Dean almost had a good fire going, when the two girls appeared again. Bobby had grabbed a piece of chalk out of one of his pockets, and was copying some symbols out of the book onto a wooden table.  
"Bobby," Blue Bow said.  
He ignored her and kept working.  
"Are you scared, Bobby?" Pink Bow asked.  
"We were scared, Bobby," Blue bow said.  
"When the monster came for us... and grabbed us tight," Pink Bow said.  
"And we couldn't even scream. You were right there, Bobby," Blue Bow said.  
"You were in the house," Pink Bow said.  
"You were so close," Blue Bow said.  
"You could have saved us, Bobby," Pink Bow said.  
"You walked right past that door," Blue Bow said.  
"The monster had us. And you didn't find us," Pink Bow said.  
Dean finished with the fire, and shot at the girls, who disappeared again.  
"Finally. Kitchen, Cutlery drawer. It's got a false bottom. I need hemlock, opium, and wormwood," Bobby said.  
"Right," Dean said.  
The girls reappeared as Dean left, heading for the kitchen. Bobby was still focusing on the desk, and didn't look up at them as the began talking again.  
"Bobby. You walked right by us while that monster ate us all up," Pink Bow said.  
"You could have saved us," Blue Bow said.  
Bobby picked up his gun and shot at the girls, unable to concentrate with them there, and not needing to feel guilty again right now.

* * *

Upstairs, Sam found the red box in the cupboard, and turned, ready to leave, but stopping short when he saw that Meg blocked his path.  
"You know what really pisses me off, Sam?" she asked. Sam fired at her quickly, but she disappeared before the bullet hit, and reappeared just behind him.  
"You saw how I suffered for months. I thought you must have learned something. I thought I died for something," she said as Sam back out of the room and away from her quickly, moving down the hall towards the stairs.  
"Meg," he said pleadingly.  
"But what you're doing with that demon, Ruby... How many innocent bodies has Ruby burned through for kicks? How many girls just like me? And you don't send her back to Hell? You're a monster!" she yelld at him.  
Sam raised his rifle and shot her, and the bullet connected this time. He turned, running down the stairs quickly, seeing Alice heading for the library as well as he reached the bottom of the stairs.

* * *

Dean cursed as he rooted through the drawer, trying to find the false bottom Bobby told him about. All of the doors to the kitchen swung shut suddenly.  
"Dean?" he heard Bobby call from the library.  
"I'm all right, Bobby! Keep working!" Dean called back.  
Henricksen appeared next to him suddenly, startling him.  
"Victor," Dean said.  
"Dean," Henricksen greeted, sounding almost cordial.  
"I know," Dean said.  
"No. You don't," Henricksen said.  
"It's my fault you're dead. I left you behind. And the minute I heard about that explosion, I thought, "I should have known." I should have protected you," Dean said. He reached for a gun behind him, but it went flying across the room, far out of his reach.  
"Uh-uh. Not so fast. You think you left and Lilith came and we all died in a beautiful blast of... white light? If only. 45 minutes," Henricksen said, taking a step closer to him.  
"What?" Dean asked.  
"Over 45 minutes. Lilith said she wanted to have some fun. The secretary was first. Remember her? Nancy, the virgin. Lilith filleted Nancy's skin off piece by piece. Right in front of us, made us watch. Nancy never stopped screaming. I was the last," Henricksen said.  
"Victor..."  
Henricksen reached for Dean, his hand going straight through his chest to grip his heart. Dean cried out in pain, and would have doubled over from it, but Henricksen kept him upright.  
"Tell me how it's fair. You get saved from Hell- I die. Why do you deserve another chance, Dean?" Henricksen demanded.  
There was a gunshot from behind, and Henricksen disappeared. Dean dropped to the ground, groaning in pain as Alice rushed over.  
"Are you okay? Dean? Can you hear me? Look, how many fingers am I holding up?" she asked, though she forgot to hold up any fingers.  
"None," Dean groaned.  
"Henricksen?" she asked.  
"Yep," he replied shortly.  
"Are you all right?" she repeated.  
"No," Dean said.  
"You'll be fine. Did you get the stuff?" Alice asked.  
"I couldn't get the bottomg out of the drawer," Dean said, leaning against the counter heavily to stand.  
"Of course you couldn't," Alice mutter, almost amused as the bottom clicked out of the drawer. She grabbed all four of the bundles of herbs that were inside, and slung Deans arm over her shoulder.  
"Come on, let's go," she said.  
She helped Dean back into the library, in time to see Sam shooting Meg and the two girls from inside the salt line.  
Alice handed Bobby the ingredients, and Dean started reloading a gun. Ronald appeared while he was in the middle of it.  
"Ronald. Hey, come on, man. I thought we were pals," he said.  
"That's when I was breathing. Now I'm gonna eat you alive," Ronald replied.  
"Well...come on, I'm not a cheeseburger," he said. He cocked his gun and pointde it at Ronald, but Ronald had vanished. Bobby began reciting some Latin and the windows blew open, the wind blowing into the house and scattering the salt line surrounding them.  
"Fuck," Alice swore, shooting her grandmother as she appeared in front of her, and hearing gun shots from where Sam and Dean were as well. She saw the two girls heading for Bobby, and went to shoot at them, but Henricksen knocked into her, and her gun went flying as she fell to the ground. She grabbed his hand as he tried to thrust it into her chest the same way he had with Dean, trying to get him off of her at the same time.  
"Sam!" she heard Dean yell.  
"Cover Bobby!" Sam yelled back. Alice managed to push Henricksen off of her, grabbing her gun off the floor and shooting him, before movement outside the window caught her eye. There were people, maybe hundreds of them outside the house, and she swore, realizing they were there for her.  
Behind her, she felt the fire flare more hotly, and all of the ghosts outside vanished suddenly. She turned, to see Sam pinned against the wall by a desk, and Bobby slumped in a corner, while Dean was by the fireplace. There were no ghosts to be seen anywhere.  
"Bobby?" Dean asked, standing as Sam pushed the desk away, freeing himself.  
Alice walked over and gave Bobby a hand up. "You all right Singer?" she asked.  
"Peachy," Bobby replied, standing.  
"Sam? Dean?"  
"We're good," Dean replied. "You?"  
"As good as ever," Alice said.  
There was a moment of silence as everyone just looked around, taking in the mess in the house, and the fact that they were all still alive.  
"Well I don't know about you three, but I could do with some pie," Dean said.  
"Cheesecake would be better," Alice said.  
"I'm just gonna have myself a drink," Bobby said.  
"I think I'll join you," Sam said.  
"Fine, that's great, but is there anything pie in the house, or do we have to go out and get some?" Dean asked impatiently. Alice just grinned at the proof that everyone was still perfectly fine.


	6. Chapter 6

No matter how much Alice joked about it, it turned out that Dean was quite serious about the pie, and since Alice was hungry and didn't have anything else to do, they went out to a diner to get some, leaving Sam sleeping, and Bobby drinking.  
"You're kidding me," Alice was saying as they were paying the bill. "There's no way."  
"I'm telling you, all of my old scars, gone, that wonky tattoo that didn't come out right on my leg, gone. Unfortunately so is the anti-possession one, but we'll just have to redo that. So, the only reasonable thing to assume right now is that I've been rehymenated too," Dean said.  
"Dean, I hate to break it to you, but once virginity's gone, it doesn't come back," Alice said, standing to leave.  
"Unless an Angel hands it back to you on a silver platter when they pull you out of hell," Dean said.  
"I don't think so. It's a lot like youth, mostly a state of mind," Alice said.  
"Well I'm in it right now," Dean insisted. "And I thought it would be kind of fitting, since I took your virginity, now you can take mine."  
"See, this is the kind of weird stuff that happens with time travel," Alice said. "But that would be fitting. In any case, I've learned two new things today," Alice said as they walked out of the diner.  
"What?" Dean asked.  
"One, the cheesecake in that place sucks," she said as they got into the car. "And two, you can eat a lot of pie."  
"That wasn't a lot of pie," Dean said.  
"I was counting, you had eight pieces," Alice said.  
"They were tiny," Dean said.  
"They were normal pie sized pieces," Alice said.  
"I was not aware there was a standard size for pie slices," someone said from the back seat. Alice and Dean both drew their guns, turning around to point them at a man in a trench coat, sitting in the back seat of the car.  
"Castiel. You could have given us some more warning, I almost shot you," Alice said, lowering her gun.  
"It wouldn't have damaged me permanently," Castiel said.  
"Wait, Castiel? The guy that pulled me out of hell?" Dean asked, remembering what Alice had told him earlier that morning.  
"Yes, I am the one who gripped you tight and raised you from perdition," Castiel said.  
"Great job on that, by the way," Alice said. "I've got a few questions for you."  
"I was not planning to stay long, nor to answer all of your questions Alice," Castiel said.  
"It shouldn't take up too much of your time. Why have you mooks been avoiding me since the hosting failed?" Alice demanded.  
"It was necessary," Castiel said.  
"Why?" Alice asked.  
"We were busy, among other things. Now, I came here to say that you did an excellent job with the witnesses," he said.  
"You were hip to all this?" Dean asked.  
"I was made aware," Castiel said.  
"Well, thanks a lot for the angelic assistance. You know, I almost got my heart ripped out of my chest," Dean said.  
"But you didn't," Castiel said.  
Alice snorted.  
"You know, I thought angels were supposed to be guardians. Fluffy wings, halos- you know, Michael Landon. Not dicks," Dean said.  
"Read the Bible. Angels are warriors of God. I'm a soldier," Castiel said.  
"Yeah? Then, why didn't you fight?" Dean asked.  
"I'm not here to perch on your shoulder. We had larger concerns," Castiel said.  
"Concerns? There were people getting torn to shreds down here! And, by the way, while all this is going on, where the hell is your boss, huh, if there is a God?" Dean demanded.  
"You didn't go through this with him?" Castiel asked Alice.  
"I did, he's... stubborn," Alice said.  
"There's a god," Castiel told Dean.  
"I'm not convinced. 'Cause if there's a God, what the hell is he waiting for, huh? Genocide? Monsters roaming the earth? The freaking apocalypse? At what point does he lift a damn finger and help the poor bastards that are stuck down here?" Dean asked.  
"The Lord works-"  
"If you say mysterious ways, so help me, I will kick your ass," Dean threatened.  
"You know, I can already tell you two are destined to be great friends," Alice said sarcastically. "So you know someone's breaking the Seals?" she asked Castiel.  
"Yes," Castiel said.  
"Do you know who?" Dean asked.  
"Lilith," Castiel said.  
"So she performed the spell. She rose the witnesses," Dean said.  
"Yes. And not just here. 20 other hunters are dead," Castiel said.  
"Of course. She picked victims that the hunters couldn't save so that they would barrel right after us," Alice said.  
"Lilith has a certain sense of humor," Castiel said.  
"Well, we put those spirits back to rest," Dean said.  
"It doesn't matter. The Seal was broken," Castiel said.  
"Why break the Seal anyway?" Dean asked.  
"You didn't tell him?" Castiel asked Alice again.  
"I kind of did. We were under attack," Alice said.  
"Fine, I'll tell him. You could think of the Seals as locks on a door," Castiel said to Dean.  
"Okay. Last one opens and?" Dean asked.  
"Lucifer walks free," Castiel said.  
"So what, you Angels are trying to keep Satan from getting loose?" Dean asked.  
"Yes," Castiel said.  
"Well... bang-up job so far. Stellar work with the witnesses. That's nice," Dean said sarcastically.  
"We tried. And there are other battles, other Seals. Some we'll win, some we'll lose. This one we lost. Our numbers are not unlimited. Six of my brothers died in the field this week. You think the armies of Heaven should just follow you around? There's a bigger picture here. You should show me some respect. I dragged you out of Hell. I can throw you back in," Castiel said. Alice heard the fluttering of unseen wings, and Castiel disappeared.  
"Well, you made a really good first impression," Alice commented.  
"Well he's a dick," Dean said angrily, starting the car up.  
"He's trying," Alice said.  
"Not hard enough," Dean said.  
They drove in silence for a few moments, before Dean spoke up again.  
"So what do we do now?" he asked.  
"Now we go hunting," Alice said. "Work our way through whatever demons we can find, drill them for information about Lilith."  
"Even if we do find her, are we going to be able to kill her?" Dean said.  
"Probably not. But an Angel could," Alice said.  
"Won't the Angels be looking for her already?" Dean asked.  
"They might be, but chances are they're too far spread out trying to guard all of the Seals. Not a job I'd want to be in charge of," Alice said.  
"So, we're right back to finding Lilith again, huh?" Dean asked drily.  
"Big demon, big trouble," Alice said simply.  
"Right. We leaving right away?" Dean asked.  
"I was gonna say we leave in the morning. It's only 9:00, so we've got time for more than enough sleep, and some other things too," Alice said. "Unless meeting Castiel wore you out too much to do anything..."  
"No, I'm good," Dean said. "So, does he have a nickname?" Dean asked after a moment. "Castiel, I mean.  
"Not since I last saw him. That was over a hundred years ago though, so he might have one now," Alice said.  
"Someone should shorten his name. I don't know... call him Cas or something," Dean said.  
"You know, he actually has a pretty short name as far as angels go," Alice said.  
"It's not that it's long. It just... Castiel? Doesn't it sound a bit... I don't know, it's a weird name," Dean said.  
"I guess," Alice said, considering telling him some of the longer, weirder angelic names, but deciding against it since they were back at Bobbys. She got out of the car, and started for the door, but stopped abruptly a few feet away from it. Dean turned to look back at her when he realized she wasn't beside him anymore.  
"Alice? There aren't any more rabid ghosts inside, are there?" Dean asked apprehensively.  
"No, but I think Bobby put the spells against ghosts back up," Alice sighed, stepping away from the invisible wall, and walking back to lean against the impala.  
"Damn," Dean swore, looking around. "I'll get him to take them back down," he said, going to open the door.  
"No, it's better that they're back up. No rabid ghosts can get in," Alice said.  
"But neither can you," Dean pointed out, walking back to her.  
"Doesn't matter," Alice said. He frowned, and she could practically see what he was thinking. She laughed, pulling him too her and kissing him quickly, letting her tongue slide teasingly over his lips before dancing away, opening the back door to the impala and climbing in.  
"Come on then, Mr. Rehymenated," she teased.  
"Am I going to regret letting you know about that idea?" Dean asked, climbing in after her and shutting the door behind him.  
"You might," she admitted. "But knowing you, you'll probably love it."  
She slid towards him, kissing him again, letting him slip his tongue into her mouth, tracing her lips, and running over her teeth before she met his tongue with hers, and pushed back, biting his bottom lip just hard enough for him to feel it, and relishing the shudder that ripped through him when she did. She pushed forward, running her hands over him slowly, feeling the muscles in his back and torso through his shirt. She pulled herself into his lap, one leg hanging off the edge of the seat, the other wrapped around him as his hands mimicked hers, and she couldn't help a soft moan as he ran his hand over her thigh. She could feel his hardness through his jeans, and she ground against it, drawing a deep moan from him. He leaned forward, so she was on her back on the seat, his lips leaving hers to mark a trail down her neck, biting and sucking the tender skin there. She gasped, fully ready to let him take over, but deciding to go through with her original plan for how this would play out.  
"No," she said firmly, pushing him up off of her. He looked down at her, confused, and she pushed him up further until he was flat against the door of the car, before turning them so that he was under her, one of his legs folded almost in half in the cramped space, and the other hanging off the side of the seat.  
"Alice, what-"  
"Shh," she said, putting a finger to his lips. "You know who gets to lead?" she asked. He shook his head, and she chuckled, leaning down to whisper in his ear. "Not the virgin," she said, biting his earlobe quickly, before taking up from where he'd left off, her tongue and teeth playing on his neck as he lay pliantly under her, going along with her.  
She unbuttoned his shirt, but pushed him back down when he tried to lean up so she could pull it off. She placed her hands on his chest, and he gasped at her cold touch. She flicked a thumb over one of his erect nipples as she dragged her hands down slowly over his abdomen, to rest on either of his sides. She repositioned herself so she was between his legs, which he tried to part further for her, with limited success. She leaned down, biting his collar bone gently as her hands played over his stomach, tickling him enough to make him quiver as she continued to make her way down his body. She circled one of his nipples with her tongue, sucking on it and grazing it with her teeth before moving to the other one, and repeating what she'd done. She kept moving down, finding the bottom of his ribcage and biting the flesh over the last rib, drawing a sharp cry from him as he bucked his hips against her, breathing heavily with need. She smiled slightly, running her tongue over the bite, soothing it before moving down again, her tongue joining her hands over his stomach, tracing a wide circle around his navel, and right down to the waistband of his jeans.  
She stopped to look up at him, seeing him leaning up slightly to watch her, his eyes lidded heavily, his lips parted a bit in anticipation. She moved back up again quickly, kissing him again as she ran her hands through his hair, rubbing her knee against his groin and enjoying the moans of pleasure it elicited from him. He put his hands back on her, stroking her breasts through her shirt, but she grabbed them and pulled them over his head, holding them there. She stopped the kiss, instead pressing her index and middle fingers against his lips.  
"Suck," she ordered. He obeyed, taking them into his mouth and suckling them, and her breath hitched as she looked down at him. He was beautiful like this, his shirt open, hands pinned over his head, sucking her fingers with his legs splayed open, his hips bucking slightly every now and then.  
"Don't move your hands," she ordered him, taking her hand away from his, and running her thumb down his collarbone, scratching him lightly with her nail, and heading back down, pinching various places on his stomach, making him twitch under her hands. She reached the waistband of his pants, unbuckling his belt. She was about to unzip them, but an idea hit her, and she pulled the belt out of it's loops, and wrapping it around his wrists. He stopped sucking her fingers in surprise, looking up at his hands, and she took advantage of having both of her hands free, wrapping the belt twice around his wrists and then buckling it quickly.  
"I didn't tell you to stop," she said softly, placing her fingers back on his lips. He looked at her questioningly, but resumed his sucking, flexing his hands experimentally.  
"Good boy," she said encouragingly, liking the way the words felt. He sucked harder, moaning around her fingers at the praise, and the feeling of helplessness that came along with having his hands bound. It wasn't something he'd tried before, and he wasn't sure if he liked it or not.  
She moved her hands back down to his pants, and unzipping them. Dean was forced to close his legs as she pulled them down, and completely off, stretching to keep her fingers in his mouth. She rubbed the base of her palm over his erection, still confined within his boxers. He moaned at the sensation, the sound muffled by the fingers she still had in his mouth, pushing up against her hand in an attempt to get more friction. She stopped suddenly, instead running her fingers along the insides of his thighs, tickling again, and he groaned at the loss, trying to speak around her fingers, but she held his tongue down with them, stroking his jaw with the thumb on the same hand.  
Alice thought she was enjoying his pleading whimpers much more than she should have been, but she didn't really care at the moment. She was aching to have him inside of her, longing to just rip those boxers off him, rid herself of her own clothes, all of which she still had on, and to fuck him until they were both screaming in ecstasy... she shook her head slightly to clear it, her womanhood contracting longingly at the thoughts. She kept her fingers dancing around his thighs and stomach, getting close to the now straining bulge in his underwear, but never touching it.  
For Dean, it was maddening, and he would have been begging for release from this sweet, slow torture, if Alice hand't been consistently pushing her fingers farther and farther into his mouth. He gagged around them as they slid down his throat a bit, and she pulled them further out, but didn't remove them. He thought that she'd done everything she could, and that he wouldn't end up having to beg for her to let him take her, but she bent down, biting his hip bone sharply, taking her fingers from his mouth and wrapping all of them around his neck as she licked and bit his thighs, insides and outsides. He groaned aloud now that he could, his cock so hard it almost hurt.  
"Alice, please," he begged, any pride forgotten by now.  
"Please what?" she asked breathlessly, trailing a hand up his side as she tried not to show how badly she needed him right now.  
"Take the fucking boxers off me," he swore.  
"Hmm," she pretended to consider, already knowing she was beyond saying no. "You didn't ask very nicely," she said, trying to keep the tremble out of her voice.  
"Please!" he begged, trying to pull his hands out of the belt with no success.  
"That's my good boy," she purred, impressed with herself. She pulled the boxers off of him quickly, wrapping her hand around his cock and stroking it from base to tip, squeezing as well. He made a sound halfway between a whine and a moan, thrusting up towards her desperately, and almost sobbing when she took her hand away, pulling her own pants and underwear off quickly, and mounting him, sliding down to take all of him in, moaning loudly as she finally felt him filling her. His moans joined hers as she started moving on him, pulling up only to slam back down on him, gripping his biceps to steady herself.  
"Oh fuck, harder!" Dean yelled, and Alice momentarily considered making him beg for it, but waved the thought aside, quickening her pace. He shifted under her slightly, and she cried out in pleasure as he hit that magic spot inside of her. He started thrusting up to meet her, but she slapped his stomach.  
"Don't move," she ordered breathlessly, feeling that she was close. His cock brushed against that spot again, and she shouted her pleasure to the roof of the car as she came, her hands tightening on his arms until it was painful for him as she stopped moving, trying to catch her breath. She pulled herself off of him when she did, drawing a groan of disappointment from him. She chuckled, realizing that he thought she was going to leave him like this.  
Instead of reassuring him with words, she scooted down until her head was between his legs, and licked his tip, tasting the pre-cum that was already leaking from it, and moving down on him slowly, palming his balls with one hand. He moaned, thrusting up into her mouth, but she slapped him again, and he got the message, and stopped moving. She bobbed on him, taking him in deep, deliberately letting her teeth graze him gently, her eyes open watching him writhe under her ministrations, his breath coming shorter and his moans louder as he got closer to climaxing. She sucked him firmly, as hard as she could, stroking his balls quickly. He started thrusting desperately again, and she let him this time, gagging slightly as he slid down her throat, but adjusting, and taking him in, swallowing around him. He shouted, finally coming undone, and spilling into her mouth. She swallowed it all, coming off of him and sliding up to rest her head on his chest, listening to his heart beating erratically.  
"Are you gonna give me my hands back now?" Dean asked after a moment, pulling lightly on the belt. Alice propped herself up on on elbow, grinning down at him evilly.  
"No, I was planning on leaving you like this all night... straight through to morning when Sam would came out looking for us. Or maybe Bobby..."  
"Just stop there, please," he said, though he was smiling.  
Alice smiled, kissing him. "Don't worry I wouldn't do that to you," she laughed.  
"Why, would you do it to someone else?" Dean asked, raising his eyebrows quizzically.  
"I did one time. But I ended up leaving him strung up in the place of a scarecrow," she said, unbuckling the belt from around his wrists. He wrapped his arms around her as soon as they were free, pulling her closer to him.  
"Sounds kinky," he observed, kissing her before she had a chance to respond. She pulled away after a few seconds, tracing the shape of his lips with one of her fingers.  
"I missed you," she said softly.  
Dean was about to reply, but paused, reminded of a question he'd wanted to ask her.  
"Alice... do you remember? Hell. Your time there," he asked.  
"It's not an easy thing to forget," she replied. "Why?"  
"I don't remember a whole lot. Some of it, but it's... it's all blurry," Dean said.  
"That's good," Alice said, tracing his jaw. "That's very good. You know, we should get dressed," she said, reaching for her pants.  
"Do we have to?" Dean asked, frowning theatrically.  
"Why, have you got other ideas?" Alice asked, stopping, not having put her pants back on yet.  
"Yes," Dean said, sitting up and pulling her into his lap. She cocked one eyebrow as she felt his cock against her leg, half hard again.  
"That was fast," she said.  
He didn't bother to respond, pulling her shirt off and ducking his head to take one of her nipples into his mouth, sucking. She pressed him against her more firmly, smiling, knowing the night was only just beginning.


	7. Chapter 7

They started out the next morning, as Alice had planned, leaving Bobby behind and telling him to contact anyone he knew who could help them.  
"And also, give them a bit of warning about what's going on," Alice said before she left.

Bobby snorted sure. "Sure. I'll just pop in a little 'warning'. How's this sound, 'Oh, and by the way Julie, you outta watch your back because it's the apocalypse'," he said.  
"It's not the apocalypse yet, but it's coming, and soon," Alice said, walking out the door to join Sam and Dean in the car. Bobby shook his head at the closed door.  
"I'm sure that'll make everybody feel much better," he mumbled to himself.  
They stopped for gas just before leaving town, and Alice went in to pay for it, and grab a few things. Dean suspected that when Alice said 'grab a few things' she didn't mean she was going to buy them. He was still sitting in the drivers seat, and his mind kept wandering back to Castiel and everything he'd been told the past few days about God and Angels(Alice had filled Sam and Bobby in on Castiels visit and what she thought was probably going on in Heaven). He was still having a hard time wrapping his head around it all. And they have to give me a break here, he thought to himself. They're asking me to change my entire view of... of existence. And he was feeling just a bit disoriented. He'd come back from the dead, to find that it was the beginning of the freaking apocalypse. That was enough to get anyone feeling a little bit... out of things. Sam leaned down and tapped on the window, interrupting his thoughts. Dean rolled down the window.  
"You all right Dean?" he asked.  
"Yeah, I'm good," Dean said.  
"What's wrong?" Sam asked, not liking the look on his face.  
"It's just... You got no problem believing in... God and Angels?" he asked.  
"No, not really," Sam said.  
"So, I guess that means that you believe in the Devil," Dean said.  
"Why are you asking me all this?" Sam asked.  
"No reason really, I'm just... it's a lot to take in," Dean said. "Yeah it is," Sam said. "But... it's all looking like it's just as real as you and me, or a vampire. You and Alice say you saw an Angel. So, there's not much more to say about it I guess. Just another layer of weird added onto our lives, right?" he asked.  
"Yeah, an apocalyptic layer of weird," Dean mumbled. Sam chuckled, and stopped pumping the gas as Alice walked out of the gas station with a bag.  
"You actually meant grab things as in buy them?" Dean asked incredulously.  
"What do you think, I hit my head while you were gone?" Alice asked, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a candy bar. "If you buy a little something, makes them less suspicious."  
"I'll remember that next time I want to steal a candy bar," Dean said, watching as she emptied her coat and pockets of various food items. "So, where to first on the greatest demon hunt of the century?" Dean asked.  
"Not sure. I was thinking of getting a room, watching for weather signs, looking through a couple of newspapers to get us started out," Alice said. "Usually if you follow one demon case long enough, and dig into it deeply enough, it'll lead you to others."  
"You know we could go back to Illinois and try to pick up the trail on those demons that I was after," Sam said, getting into the passenger side. "If we're looking for leads on these seals they might know something since they seemed to be running towards where Dean was, just about the same time he popped up."  
"Alright, that saves us time trying to find demons," Alice said.

* * *

They didn't stop for the night, just took shifts driving. At first, Dean was more than happy about the sleep he thought he was going to get, and since both Sam and Alice took shifts before his came up, he figured he could get about twice as much sleep as he would have with just Sammy there.  
But as he started to drift off into sleep, he found himself flinching away from the images that threw themselves at him. His eyes snapped open, and he wasn't in the Impala. He jerked himself back into consciousness, breathing heavily in fear, having recognized the diluted light, and the heat, and the pain, pain in every fiber of his being at what was being done to him. He looked over to the drivers side to see Alice watching him.  
"What did you see?" she asked softly. Dean peeked into the mirror, seeing Sam was sleeping in the back of the car.  
"Hell," Dean said.  
"You don't remember it, but you dream about it?" Alice asked.  
"I... this is the first time I've dreamed about it," Dean said. He couldn't remember what hell had been like, but he knew instinctively that what he'd seen had been Hell. "Do you dream about it?" he asked Alice.  
"Most of the time," she said.  
There were a few moments of silence as they drove, Dean considering a question, but almost afraid to ask it. He finally did.  
"Where do you think I'm going to go when I die again?" he asked.  
Alice didn't say anything for a few moments, before she shook her head. "I don't know Dean. Your contract could still be valid. They might drag you back down to hell. Or maybe you already did your time, and there's nothing they can do."  
There were another few moments of silence, before Dean spoke again. "How do you plan on not ending up back there when you die?" he asked.  
The question too Alice by surprise. "I... I've never thought about it too much. I guess I don't want to think about it," she admitted.  
"There has to be something we can do. Couldn't you get Castiel or one of his Angelic buddies to wipe your slate clean? I mean, since you are trying to stop the apocalypse and all," Dean said.  
"That's a good idea, actually. I'll talk to him about it sometime," Alice lied. In truth, she knew how Heaven and it's judgments worked. Once a name was struck from their Book the way hers had been, it didn't go back in. But Dean didn't need to know that.

* * *

By the time they got to Pontiac, the demons were long gone. They tried to pick up the trail, but the demons had been careful not to leave one, so the hunters rented a motel room, opting to bunk down for a while and watch for omens. They had also called in all the contacts they had, but no one had any demon hunts for them. And so, they waited.  
And while Alice was calm, and Dean resigned, Sam was restless. He still couldn't believe that Ruby had just up and left like that, especially after... after everything. On the third day, he finally resolved to try and get ahold of her. He stood from the table where he'd been sitting, watching Dean watching Alice watching the weather channel. They both turned to look at him.  
"My legs are cramping up, I'm going out for a walk," he said.  
"Good, pick up some food while you're out," Alice said.  
"Make sure you get some pie," Dean put in.  
"Sure thing," Sam said, walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. He waited until he was a few blocks away from the motel, before he took his phone out, dialing the number to Rubys last phone, and hoping she still had it on her. It rang for a few minutes, and he sighed, thinking that she wasn't going to pick it up.  
"Sam, I told you, I can't be involved with you now," he heard her voice suddenly. "Don't call again."  
"Ruby wait," he said quickly. "Look, I need your help. I can't do this without you."  
"Well I can't do anything with you, at least not while you're riding around with Alice, Angels and co," Ruby said. "Think about it for a minute, do you really believe that she's not going to kill me the second she gets within shooting distance of me? Oh, and not to mention the Angels."  
"She doesn't have to know we're working together, Ruby. As far as she knows, you went back to hell when Rufus exorcised you," Sam pointed out. "And do you really think she would recognize you if she saw you?"  
"Look, I hate giving the bitch compliments, but she's a great hunter, one of the best. She can smell a demon from two miles away, you should know that better than anyone," Ruby said. "And lately, from what I've been hearing, she's been able to see demons in their true forms. That makes her about fifty times as dangerous."  
"But would she recognize you if she saw you?" Sam asked.  
"I don't know. Maybe," Ruby said.  
"Alice and Dean don't have to know I'm working with you Ruby. And even if they do find out, we don't have to tell them who you are," Sam said.  
"You mean passing me off for some other demon," Ruby realized. "That's not bad for a sasquatch."  
"Ruby, I really need you help," Sam said, ignoring her name calling. "I can't do any of this without you. And to tell you the truth, I don't really want to."  
Ruby didn't say anything for a few minutes, before she finally sighed. "Fine. If I get killed, I'm blaming you for it. Where are you?"  
"Back in Pontiac," Sam said.  
"Great. Let me guess, Alice and Dean are with you?" she asked.  
"Yeah," he said.  
"And there's no way you'll ditch them and come hunt with me," she said, already knowing what his answer would be.  
"No," Sam said.  
"Are you on a case right now?" she asked.  
"No, we're looking for one," Sam said.  
"Alright, you and the Hell escapees get your butts over here. I'm in Libbingston Mississippi, following a demon around, and he's getting antsy."  
Sam opened his mouth to speak, but Ruby hung up before he could. He pocketed his phone, and turned, heading back to the hotel room. Dean frowned when he came in.  
"I thought you were getting food," he said.  
"Uh... I was, but I uh, I got a call from a friend, and they have a case for us," he said.  
"Where?" Alice asked.  
"Libbingston Mississippi," Sam said.  
"Right. Let's go," she said, standing and turning off the TV.  
"What about food?" Dean asked.  
"We'll get something on the way out of town," Alice said, gathering up their things. Dean mumbled something about pie, and shot Sam a dirty look. Sam ignored him. He would have been praying that Dean and Alice didn't find out about Ruby, but considering what he now knew about who was listening to his prayers, he decided against it.

* * *

Sam managed to slip away from Alice and Dean every now and again to call Ruby and get the latest on the case. Apparently, she already had the demon she was hunting subdued, and locked in an abandoned building. She'd set up something of a wild goose chase for Alice and Dean to go on while she and Sam took care of the demon.  
It was in a man, and Ruby had managed to tie him to a chair in the center of a devils trap. It was glaring at Sam, it's black eyes shifting to Ruby ever so often, who was standing back a ways.  
"Where's Lilith?" Sam asked again.  
"Kiss my ass," it told him. Sam smiled.  
"I'd watch myself if I were you," he warned.  
"Why? Huh? Because you're Sam Winchester, Mr. Big Hero? And yet here you are, slutting around with some demon. Real hero," the demon said.  
"Shut your mouth," Sam said.  
"Tell me about those months without your brother. About all the things you and this demon bitch do in the dark," he went on. Ruby watched Sam cautiously, hoping he wouldn't blow this.  
"Huh? Tell me, hero."  
Sam couldn't control his anger any longer, and raised his hand. The man choked as the demon struggled to stay inside of him, but Sam forced him out, the smoke slowly seeping from his mouth in irregular blobs, and sinking down through the floor. Sam took a breath, telling himself he needed to get a handle on himself. Ruby looked at the spot on the floor where the demon had disappeared through, a smile playing over her lips. Sam looked back at her, and smiled as well, before walking over to the now simply unconscious man, and touching neck to check for a pulse.  
"He's okay," he said to Ruby.  
"How'd it feel?" Ruby asked him.  
"Good. No more headaches," Sam said, untying the man.  
"None? That's good," Ruby said. The man groaned, starting to wake up.  
"Hey, hey. I got you. It's all right," he said, helping the man up out of the chair.  
"What- What hap- What was-"  
Sams phone rang, and he shot Ruby a glance, and she hurried over, taking the mans arm.  
"I'll get you to the ER," she said, leading him out and looking back at Sam, who smiled at her again as he answered his phone.  
"Yeah?" he asked.  
"Sam? Who tipped you off on this case?" Dean asked from the other end.  
"Uh... Kelly Shelts," he lied quickly.  
"I don't know who that is," Dean said, sounding annoyed.  
"I only met her after you died," Sam said.  
"Whatever, whoever she is, she's full of it. There wasn't any demon," Dean said.  
"I'm guessing that's not the only reason you sound pissed?" Sam asked.  
"Alice fell through the floor," Dean said.  
"Ouch, how far down?" Sam asked.  
"Only a couple of feet, but she sprained her ankle, and she blames me for it," Dean complained. "Anyway, I got a call from Bobby. He's got a hunt for us, and we know he's a reliable source, so we're going to Russellville," Dean said.  
"Russellville where?" Sam asked.  
"Arkansas," Dean replied. "Okay, fine," he said to someone else. "Alice says to get your ass back to the hotel because she wants to get going."  
"I'm on my way," he said. He hung up, and immediately dialed Rubys number. "What's going on?" she asked from the other end.  
"Dean called, we're leaving now, going to Russellville Arkansas after a case that Bobby thinks looks promising," Sam said.  
"Fine, I guess I'll catch up with you after I drop this guy off," she said.  
"Right. See you there," Sam said.  
"Take care Sam."  
She hung up, and Sam walked out of the building. The hotel that Dean and Alice were waiting at was only a few blocks away, and he jogged the distance, keeping the presence of mind to stop at a gas station and pick up a few things before showing up.  
Dean and Alice were already in the car, Alice in the back seat, and Dean in the drivers side. "Finally," Alice said when Sam climbed in the passenger side. "Let's get the hell out of dodge."  
"Where were you anyway?" Dean asked.  
"I got hungry," Sam said, pulling a candy bar out of the bag he was holding. He offered one to Alice.  
"Don't mind if I do," she said, taking it from him.  
"So, fill me in on this new case bobby has for us," Sam said.  
"Basically, some guy died, and Bobby has some new hunter on the case, who can't decide if it's a ghost or a demon. He told the kid to go home, and called us to go take care of it," Dean said.  
"You smell like sulfur Sam," Alice said, poking her head up into the front of the car to look at him.  
"I do?" Sam asked, sniffing his shirt, and realizing he did. Damn, now what?  
"In our line of work, who doesn't smell like sulfur?" Dean asked.  
"I guess," Alice said, sitting back down, and Sam sighed in relief internally. Alice knew that she was a very suspicious, very paranoid individual. And there were ways to get sulfur on you besides exorcising demons. It wasn't that she didn't trust Sam in particular. It was that she'd made it a policy not to trust anyone ever, because you never knew when they would get possessed, or knocked on the head, or just see something that changed them. And she hadn't seen Sam in nearly four months, after all. That was more than enough time for a person to change for the worse. She decided to keep an eye on Sam, but not start acting crazy just because he smelled like sulfur.  
"Hey, who wants to play a game?" she asked, wanting to do something to distract herself from the pain in her ankle.  
"What kind of game?" Sam asked.  
"I don't know. Make one up," she ordered, leaning back against the seat, grinning and propping her foot up between Sam and Deans seats, and settling back. "I figure that with all the creative power between the two of you, we should have a decent game by the time we get to Russellville," she said.  
Dean rolled his eyes, and shook his head, and Sam just chuckled slightly, turning to look out the window as they drove.


	8. Chapter 8

**Russellville, Arkansas**

"Hurry up," Dean urged Sam. Dean was holding a flashlight so he could see to pick the lock on the morgue. They'd had some trouble with the coroner, who had demanded to see a warrant of them, which was something that had never happened to either Alice or the Winchesters before. He'd let them look at the body, but when they'd asked him to perform an autopsy on the man, Frank O'Brien, he'd started getting agitated.  
"Union workers," Alice had mumbled as they left the morgue. They'd noticed that people were more suspicious of them when all three of them showed up posing as FBI at the same time, so Alice and Sam had gone in, leaving Dean out in the car.  
"That was awfully fast," Dean said, hurriedly stuffing the adult magazine he'd been reading under his seat. Alice ignored it, settling into the passenger seat. They'd picked up where the newbie hunter had left off, and the first thing they'd done had been to check out the vics house. And found out that the new hunter actually probably wasn't an idiot. There was both sulfur and EMF in Franks house, though the EMF was a weak signal, and had probably been from a ghost that had passed by a while ago. But they weren't sure. And Mr. O'Brien had worked in a packaging plant, which distributed, of all things, purified sulfur.  
"So what happened?" Dean asked.  
"The coroner wants to see a warrant before he'll do the autopsy," Sam said.  
"Great. So how are we supposed to find out if he really died of a heart attack or not?" Dean asked. A heart attack at 44 was the kind of thing that sparked their interest. Especially when the 44 year old in question was a marathon runner. "Wait, how do they know that's how he died if they haven't done one?"  
"They probably don't. Lazy ass government workers, it's always the same no matter where you go," Alice said.  
"So now what?" Dean asked.  
"Simple. We perform our own autopsy," she'd said.  
And so, here they were, breaking into a morgue to cut some guy open. Alice claimed that she'd watched enough autopsies in her day to know her way around a persons chest cavity, and would be able to tell if it really was a heart attack that had gotten him.  
Sam got the door open, and they filed in, Sam leading the way to the morgue. Alice switched on the light when they reached the freezer room, and Dean jumped, looking around.  
"What are you doing? Turn that off," he hissed at her.  
"Why? There's no one here," she said, not bothering to whisper.  
"I don't know, it feels... wrong," Dean said, still whispering.  
"Whatever. Here we go," Alice said, turning a handle on the freezer and pulling the body out, being careful to keep her hand covered with her sleeve so as not to leave prints. "You two pick this up and follow me," she said.  
"Isn't there a cart or something we can put it on?" Dean asked.  
"Probably, but I don't want to waste time looking for it," Alice said, standing by the door and tapping her foot impatiently. Sam shrugged, already having swung O'Briens feet off the side of the platform, and Dean groaned internally.  
"You know, I love my job," he grunted as they carried him off down the hall after Alice, who had turned into another room, and turned the lights on in here as well, and also a bright overhead light. Dean and Sam heaved the body onto the operating table under the light, Dean stepping back as he watched Alice pull a tray out of a cabinet, and carry it over.  
"If they don't catch us straight away, they'll know we were here from the light bill," Dean commented.  
"Quite being pessimistic," Alice said. She slid on some gloves, and an apron, and looked the scalpels over, selecting one, and going around to the other side of the body.  
"Aren't you supposed to wash your hands, or do some kind of fancy preparation?" Dean asked.  
"Probably, but I don't really give a shit about procedural stuff," Alice said. "You two put on gloves and aprons, I'm gonna want your help."  
Dean just groaned, and rolled his eyes as Sam tossed him an apron.  
"Dean, is this your first dead body?" Alice asked him mockingly, making an incision down the center of O'Briens chest.  
"Far from it," Dean said.  
"Then quit acting like a baby. Sam, hand me those rib cutters and the... whatever that thing is," she ordered, pointing at a .  
"I'm not acting like a baby," Dean muttered, taking a fortifying breath as Sam handed the cutters and a cardiac surgical retractor to Alice. He didn't look, though he heard plenty of sounds that told him exactly what was happening to O'Briens body. He glanced over to Sam, and felt a bit less bad about himself when he saw that Sam was having a hard time not squirming. But then, Sam was actually watching what Alice was doing. It had already occurred to Dean several times over that he worked with dead bodies all the time. He dug them up, he burnt them, he cut charms out of them from time to time, and he'd had to sit in confined spaces with them at times in his life. But then, he'd never actually had to sit through an autopsy. He just got the results from the coroner when it was all over. Easy peasy. And definitely not as gross as having Alice do it. Damn, this was going to change the way he looked at her hands from here on out.  
"Hey, do you have any idea how he got these?" Sam asked suddenly. Dean looked down, gagging slightly at the hole in O'Briens chest, to see that Sam was holding up his arm.  
"No. I guess if you drop dead from a heart attack you get scraped up going down," Alice said, though she looked doubtful. Sam let the arm fall down, and Dean looked away again. The room was silent for a few more minutes(except for the sound of Alice digging around in the guys chest of course).  
"Ha. Thought so," Alice said triumphantly.  
"What?" Sam asked.  
"There aren't any blockages in any of the major arteries," she said. "I'm not a professional, but this heart looks pretty healthy to me. Here, hold this a second," she said, pulling the heart out and handing it to Dean. Dean took it gingerly, trying not to vomit, noticing Sams smirk. It was wiped from his face when Alice cut something else, and blood squirted up into his face.  
"Oops, sorry," Alice commented.  
"Are we all done here?" Dean demanded.  
"Pretty much," Alice said, putting the scalpel down on the table, taking off her gloves and the apron, and balling them up. "Let's go."  
"Wait, shouldn't we clean up a bit?" Sam asked.  
"No, unless you dumbasses left prints somewhere," Alice said, walking out the door. "Make sure you bring the aprons and gloves along with you so I can burn them," she called from in the hall.

* * *

Alice left the evidence from their late night autopsy in the tub overnight, and in the morning, she volunteered to stay at the motel, dispose of them, and do some more research on O'Brien, while Sam and Dean went out to talk to some of the people who'd known him.  
They came back a few hours later, Sam looking puzzled, and Dean looking a bit freaked out.  
"Find anything good?" Alice asked, closing her laptop.  
"Well, he was close with the sheriff," Sam said. Dean sat down heavily on the bed, looking around nervously. "And also, he bullied people in school, and was scared out of his mind the last few days before he died."  
"Yeah, that tells us a whole lot," Alice said. "That basically means whatever killed him was scary. So far we've got Demon or ghost, and they're both scary. And we have to keep the possibility open that it's not really either of those and we have something else on our hands."  
"Great, this keeps getting easier," Sam said. "Did you find anything?"  
"Maybe. O'Briens wife, Jessie, was a manic-depressive. She went off her meds back in '88 and vanished. They found her two weeks later, three towns over. Strung up in her motel room, suicide," Alice said.  
"Any chance Frank helped her along to the other side?" Sam asked.  
"No, Frank was working the swing shift when she disappeared. Airtight alibi," Alice said.  
"I gotta go," Dean said abruptly, hurrying into the bathroom. Alice and Sam watched him go, and Sams expression changed as soon as the door was closed.  
" I think something's up with Dean," he said quietly.  
"What do you mean?" Alice asked.  
"He's been acting weird all day. This morning, he took the long way around the motel to get the Impala, because he didn't like the way a couple of teens looked. And the EMF meter went off in the car," Sam said. Alices eyebrows shot up.  
"Is that it? Because you know that thing's useless with me around," she said.  
"No. Do you know if Dean's afraid of snakes?" Sam asked.  
"We've had some discussions about snakes, but probably not the ones you're talking about," Alice said.  
"Okay, too much information. As far as I know, he isn't afraid of them. But this one guy we talked to had a pair of pythons, and Dean was terrified of them," Sam said.  
"So? Pythons are scary," Alice said.  
"That's not all either though. When we were driving back, he was doing twenty," Sam said.  
"Dean?" Alice asked, her suspicions raised now.  
"Yeah. And he passed the hotel up because he 'didn't want to make a left turn through oncoming traffic'," Sam said, making air quotes with his fingers. Alice stood without saying another word, unzipping her bag and pulling out a few items. She stood in front of the bathroom door, and waited until Dean came out. She flung water in his face quickly, poured salt on him, and jumped on him, pinning him to the bathroom floor and nicking him with three different knives, before she stood.  
"What the hell?" Dean demanded from the floor. "You could have killed me!"  
"I think it's still Dean," she said, putting the knives away. She thought for a moment, and then started speaking in Latin, not an exorcism, Sam thought.  
"Nope. Not Pren either," she said to herself.  
"What the hell?" Dean repeated, standing. Alice spotted a few scratches on the inside of his arm, and her eyebrows shot up.  
"Well well well," she said, again, to herself. She pointed at Sam. "Keep an eye on him for me," she said, taking her phone with her and dialing a number while heading for the door.  
"Hey Bobby? It's Alice. I need you to look something up for me," she said, before closing the door behind her.  
"What was all that about?" Dean demanded of Sam.  
"I told her I thought you were acting a bit strange," Sam replied.  
"Thanks, you're a real pal," Dean said, looking down at himself. "And what the hell is a Pren?"  
"Beats me," Sam said, shrugging and sitting down. A few moments passed in silence, before Sams phone rang, and he frowned, answering it.  
"Hello?" he asked.  
"Sam?" Rubys voice came from the other end.  
"Uh, I'm still at the hotel with Dean," Sam said, trying to sound casual.  
"Oh, I see. Can you talk while he's there without completely giving yourself away?" Ruby asked. Sam looked at Dean, who was eyeing the wallpaper oddly.  
"No, not really," he said.  
"Can you get away from him and call me back?" Ruby asked, sounding annoyed.  
"Yeah," Sam said.  
"Fine. Make it fast." Ruby hung up, and Sam pocketed his phone, already thinking of a good excuse to leave the room.  
"Alice says she wants me to pick up some food," Sam said, standing.  
"Great. I guess I'll just... stay here then," Dean said. Sam nodded, and started for the door, but Dean stopped him.  
"Hey Sam?" he asked. Sam turned back. "Could you take that thing down before you go? It's kind of freaking me out," he said, nodding at the painting on the wall. Sam raised his eyebrows, but took it down, turning to against the wall, before leaving.

* * *

"Right, thanks Bobby," Alice said, hanging the phone up. On one hand, she was pleased with herself, because she'd figured out what was going on with O'Brien. On the other hand...  
She lost her train of thought, her eyebrows knitting together as two hands, obviously belonging to Dean shot up from the front seat of the Impala. She got a bit closer, and realized he was air drumming to Eye of the Tiger. She walked up to the car, and knocked on the window. Dean jumped about a foot up into the air, quickly turning off the radio and rolling the window down.  
"What's going on?" he asked, scratching the inside of his arm, seemingly without realizing he was doing it.  
"Stop that," she said, swatting his hand away from his arm. "Where's Sam, I thought I told him to watch you?" Alice asked, peeking into the backseat of the car.  
"He went for some food," Dean said.  
"Great. That's awesome. What did I say? Watch Dean Sam. Does Sam watch Dean? No. Sam goes and gets food," Alice mumbled to herself. "What are you doing out here?" she addressed Dean.  
"Well... a couple of reasons. The wall paper in our room is a bit... creepy. And also, our room's all the way up on the fourth floor," Dean said.  
"So?" Alice asked.  
"It's high," Dean said, as if that were a perfect;y valid reason to wait out in the car.  
"Yep. I'm right. Do you think Sam'll be back soon?" she asked.  
"Probably. Why?" Dean asked.  
"I figured out what's going on here, and what's wrong with you, and I don't want to have to explain it all twice," Alice said.  
"There's something wrong with me?" Dean asked.  
"Besides the amount of brains you possess, or lack thereof? Yeah," Alice said.  
"I don't-"  
"Hey Sam!" Alice called, ignoring Dean and waving to Sam as she spotted him. He jogged across the street, carrying a bag with Wendys in it. "I told you to watch him," she said, glaring at Sam when he came within hearing distance.  
"Oh... did something happen?" Sam asked, handing the bag to Alice.  
"Yes. Sit down, I know what's wrong with Dean, and what killed Mr. O'Brien," she said, walking over to the passenger side herself. Sam sat in the back, and Dean closed and locked the doors to the car as soon as they were all in. "Dean has ghost sickness, and it looks like O'Brien did too," Alice said. "Any chance you two have heard of ghost sickness before?"  
"Uh, nope," Dean said, examining his burger.  
"Okay. Some cultures believe that certain spirits can infect the living with a disease, which is why they stopped displaying bodies in houses and started taking them off to funeral homes. And a few years back, I worked a case that showed me that it is an actual disease."  
"Okay, get to the good stuff," Dean said, setting the burger aside and watching Alice.  
"Main symptoms are anxiety-"  
"Yeah?" Dean said, and Alice glared him into silence.  
"Then the infected person gets more and more freaked out, scared, then really scared, and then your heart gives out," Alice said. "My guess is there was a carrier ghost that came into contact with Mr. O'Brien, and you caught it from him."  
"Then how come Sam didn't catch it?" Dean asked.  
Alice shrugged. "He probably eats his brussel sprouts, unlike you. Stronger immune system," she said.  
"So now what, I have 48 hours before I go insane and my heart stops?" Dean asked, his tone frantic.  
"More like 24," Alice said.  
"Super," Dean muttered.  
"Wait, what about you?" Sam asked abruptly.  
"What about me?" Alice asked.  
"Could you have caught it?" His eyes widened as something dawned on him. "Could you really be that gave it to Dean?" Dean shifted a bit farther away from Alice.  
"I doubt it, I wasn't here when O'Brien died," Alice said.  
"But you could have it," Dean pointed out.  
"I don't. I'm not the one freaking out here. And even if I did, so what?" Alice asked.  
"So, couldn't you spread it around to other people?" Sam pointed out.  
"I'm not displaying symptoms," Alice said.  
"But you could be like Robert Carlyles wife from 28 days later, you don't show symptoms, but you can still infect other people," Dean said, practically flattened against the car door opposite her.  
"Or you could be infected and completely paranoid," Alice said, but Sam could hear the doubt in her voice.  
"So how do we cure ghost sickness?" Sam asked.  
"Kill the ghost that started it all and the disease'll just go away on it's own," Alice replied.  
"You think it could be Franks wife?" Sam asked.  
Alice considered that, and shrugged. "Could be. We can try digging up her records, maybe burn her bones and see what happens."  
"Not we. Me and Dean'll do it. You're on lock down until we get this thing cleared up in case you're... whatever Dean said," Sam said.  
Alice glared at him, but didn't protest. She yanked the bag of food out of his hands, and stormed out of the Impala, turning back before she closed the door.  
"When you morons get stuck, call me," she said tartly, before slamming the door, and marching into the hotel.  
"This is all great," Dean mumbled.  
"We'll get it sorted out," Sam reassured him. "Why aren't you eating?"  
"What if I choke?" Dean demanded.  
Sam stared at him in disbelief for a few moments, before shaking his head.  
"Let's get going before you starve to death," he said.


	9. Chapter 9

Sam honestly tried to take Dean along with him, but Dean was more of a hindrance than a help, insisting that they drive at a snails pace, and freaking out over little things, attracting odd looks from the people around them. And so Sam dropped him back off at the hotel with Alice, who had gotten their room moved down to the first floor for Deans sake, and then went back out again. He visited the hall of records, and when he was through a bit later, called Dean and Alice.

"You two doing okay over there?" he asked.  
"Oh, yeah. Just peachy," Dean said brightly.  
"He's lying, nothing's peachy," Alice put in. They had Sam on speaker phone. "Dean started coughing up wood chips."  
"What?" Sam demanded.  
"Thanks Alice, you know I wasn't going to tell him that for a reason," Dean said. "You're welcome dearest," Alice replied sweetly. "So, did you find anything?"  
"Yeah, Jessie O'Brien's body was cremated, so I'm pretty sure she's not our ghost," Sam said.  
"Quit scratching that," Alice told Dean, slapping his hand away from his arm again.  
"How you feeling Dean?" Sam asked.  
"Awesome. It's nice to have my head on the chopping block again. I almost forgot what that feels like. It's freaking delightful," Dean said.  
"I guess we'll just have to keep looking," Sam said. Dean started coughing again, and Alice moved to pat him on the back firmly.  
"You okay?" Sam asked. Dean started choking, and Alice patted him more firmly.  
"Give him a minute," she told the phone.  
Sam waited, hearing Dean gagging on the other end, and then gasping for breath.  
"Another wood chip," Alice commented.  
"You know, we've been completely ignoring the biggest clue we have," Sam said.  
"And what's that?" Alice asked.  
"Dean."  
"I don't want to be a clue," Dean complained.  
"The abrasions, the wood chips, the disease is trying to tell us something," Sam said.  
"Tell us what, wood chips?" Dean asked.  
"Shut up Dean, Sam's onto something," Alice said. "Go on."  
"I think Dean's right, it is trying to tell us wood chips," Sam said.  
Alice rolled her eyes. "And that means?"  
"Well, it's a bit of a long shot, but O'Briens wife used to work at a lumber mill," Sam said.  
"Awesome, a solid lead," Dean muttered.  
"Okay. How about you go check out the lumber mill?" Alice asked.  
"Alright, but I want some backup," Sam said.  
"I'll come along with you," Alice said.  
"No, you could spread the disease around to more people. I'll take Dean," Sam said.  
"Alright, one, Dean could spread this thing around just as easily as I could, two, you said it yourself when you dropped him off here, Dean's useless at the moment, and three, I might not even have the disease at all," Alice said. "And four, you're right, you do need backup."  
"Wait, you two aren't going to leave me here alone are you?" Dean asked, looking panicked again.  
"The alternative is coming along with us to a possibly haunted lumber mill," Alice said.  
"Shouldn't we wait until night to go anyway? Would they even let us in during business hours?" Dean asked.  
"The place has been abandoned for a few years now," Sam said.  
"There, we're going now. How far away from us are you Sam?" Alice asked.  
"I'm parked outside," Sam said.  
"Great, I'm coming out," Alice said.  
"Wait!" Dean yelled, standing. "You are not leaving me here alone!"  
"You'll get the heart attack early if you come along," Alice argued.  
"I'll get the heart attack early if you leave me behind," Dean shot back.  
"Hey, just flip a coin or something already, you two are killing me," Sam said through the phone.  
Dean pulled a coin out of his pocket, and called heads. He flipped it, and Alice cursed when it landed on heads.  
"Fine, but I'm saying I told you so if you die," she warned.

* * *

"I'm not going in there," Dean said, all the blood draining from his face when he caught sight of the mill.  
"You're the one who wanted to come along," Alice reminded him, stepping out of the car.  
Dean took a swig of whiskey. "Fine, let's do this. It is a little spooky though, isn't it?" Dean asked, getting out of the car and going around to the back where Sam and Alice were sorting through the weapons. Sam handed Dean a gun, and Dean flinched away from it.  
"I'm not carrying that. It could go off," Dean said. Alice and Sam both shot him an identical look, and Dean grabbed a flashlight from the trunk. "I'll man the flashlight," he said, holding it in both hands and grinning tightly.  
"You do that," Alice said drily. They started walking to the lumber mill, and as soon as they got inside, the EMF meter went off from in Sams pocket.  
"Why do you even bother bringing that thing along when I'm with you?" Alice asked as Sam pulled it out of his pocket, and turned it off.  
"Okay, I say we split up," he said.  
"Wait, what?" Dean asked in alarm.  
"You can go along with someone else," Sam said, predicting what he would say next.  
"He can go with you," Alice said. "He's wearing on my patience."  
"That's fine. You go that way, we'll head that way, and we'll meet back up at the car," Sam said.  
"Sounds good to me," Alice said, walking off. And she did feel a bit bad about all the names she'd called Dean today, but he was asking for it. When they'd been alone at the hotel, Dean had jumped at every little noise, complained about the wall paper, said he was thirsty and then worried about drowning, said that the air conditioner was scaring him, she was scaring him, and yada yada yada. If Sam hadn't called when he did, she thought she might have ended up throttling him.  
She was jerked out of her thoughts by a high pitched shriek of pure terror. She bolted down the halls towards it, turning a few times until she burst into a room with Sam and Dean, a cat running out the door past her.  
"What the hell's going on in here?" she demanded when she didn't see any killer ghosts.  
"Dean saw a cat," Sam said, going through a locker.  
"It was scary," Dean protested.  
"Luther Garland," Sam read off of a security badge.  
"Did you find something?" Alice asked.  
"Maybe," Sam said.  
"Hey, that's is Frank's wife," Dean said, pointing to a pencil drawing pinned to a board above the desk  
"Ah. The plot thickens," Alice said, walking over and examining the desk under the board.  
"Yeah, but into what?" Sam asked.  
Alice took the drawing down, frowning a she heard a machine turn on somewhere else in the mill. She shivered as she felt a presence, another ghost.  
Dean screeched, and bolted for the door, and Sam raised his gun at an apparition in the corner.  
"Wait stop!" Alice yelled, but Sam had already fired the gun, and the ghost vanished. "Idiot! Always shooting first and asking questions never," she swore at him.  
"Yeah, that's usually the best thing to do with ghosts," Sam said.  
"But this one was- you know what, never mind. You've got the name, Luther Garland. Go with Dean, do some research, and find out more about him," Alice said.  
"What are you going to do?" Sam asked.  
"I'm going to talk to that ghost, if he ever comes back," Alice said.  
"Be careful," Sam said.  
"Who, me? When am I not careful?" Alice asked jokingly. Sam shook his head and headed out after Dean. "Oh, and Sam." He turned back to her. "Don't let Dean get too drunk."

* * *

"Deputy, according to this, Luther Garland's cause of death was physical trauma. What does that mean?" Sam asked Linus, the deputy. They were at the police station, Dean hanging back while Sam asked all the questions.  
"The guy died 20 years ago, before my time. Sorry. Is your partner drunk?" Linus asked.  
"No. Can we talk to the sheriff?" Sam asked.  
"Um, he's out sick today," Linus said.  
"Well, if you see him, will you have him call us? We're staying at the Bluebird. Mind if I take this?" Sam asked, indicating the file.  
"Know what? You're awesome," Dean said from behind him.  
Linus was taken aback by the sudden comment. "Oh, thanks. Um, y-you too, I guess," Linus said.  
"Right, thanks for your time," Sam said, grabbing Deans arm and leading him out behind him as he left.

* * *

Alice didn't know what to do, to tell the truth. She sat in the chair at the desk, played with the pencils.  
"Ghostie? Want to come out and talk to me?" she called out after a while, spinning around in the chair. "I'm not gonna hurt you, if that's what you're worried about. Check me out, I'm like you. Sort of. Wouldn't you like to talk? You can complain it you want. I don't know. Tell me how you died. Or maybe not. I'm not very good at all that talking crap, but I can listen. You know, you really should let me help you." She decided not to mention moving on in case he really was listening, and wasn't sanguine with that idea. "I don't know what you need help with, but if you show yourself, and tell me, then I can see what I can do."  
She waited a moment, and sighed, not really surprised when there as no reply, and no ghost. She stood, still talking, not sure if she was still trying to draw him out, or if she just enjoyed the running commentary.  
"Let's see... I'm going to do some amazing detective work. You liked to draw," she said, inspecting the rest of the pictures pinned up to the board. They were mostly of landscapes, there were a few cats scattered here and there, and more of Mrs. O'Brien from various perspectives.  
"Looks like you were pretty good. I'm impressed," she said. She left the desk, walking over to his locker and opening the door, cringing a bit at the smell.  
"Wow, you were one of those people who just left their dirty socks in their work locker, weren't you," she said. She pulled out a superman lunchbox.  
"I don't know how old you were, but I'm guessing you were young at heart, huh?" She opened the lunch box, and closed it again quickly. The food inside was rotted long past recognition.  
"Okay. Look, I know I'm not a therapist or anything, but I can give advice. And I'm willing to bet you're feeling a bit lost, right? So, come on out, and I'll play... ghost guidance counselor. I bet if I made that my full time job and charged ten cents an hour I'd be a billionare within a week."  
She walked back over to the desk, and sat down again, when a glint in the corner caught her eye. She stood, and walked over, picking up a small pendant, silver wire wrapped around a piece of rough crystal, tied to a thin black rope. It was a salt crystal, and she had to hold it by the string. Luckily the wire was only silver in color.  
She felt a chill go down her spine, and turned slowly, to see a man standing directly behind her. He was a big, bald man, who, to be honest, looked a bit like an ogre from a childrens story. Alice swallowed once, reminding herself that he was a ghost. But then, ghosts could do a lot of damage.  
She held out the pendant. "Is this yours?" she asked quietly.  
The ghost nodded silently, and Alice held it out to him.  
"You can take it. Just hold it by the string," she instructed him. He looked at her, puzzled, but reached for it, surprised when he took it, and didn't disappear. Alice let it go, thinking about stepping away, but deciding to stay her ground. The ghost looked at the necklace, sadness written all over his features.  
"Could you hear me before?" Alice asked him.  
He nodded, and still didn't speak.  
"Do you want to tell me your story?" she asked.  
He considered for a moment, before he held his hand out. She looked at it, not sure what he wanted from her.  
"I don't understand," she said.  
He shook his hand at her, then held it in front of her steadily. Not sure what else she could do, she placed her hand in his. He wound his fingers through hers, and started for the door, pulling her along behind him. She went willingly, hopeful that she could clear things up now.

* * *

Sam and Dean were at an assisted living home, going to visit Luther Garlands brother, Larry.  
"This isn't gonna work," Dean was fussing. "Come on, these badges are fake. What if we get busted? We could go to jail," he said.  
"Dean, shh!" Sam said. He could see what Alice had meant about Dean wearing on her patience. Just the complaints and worries that Dean had voiced during the car ride had been enough that Sam would have gagged him and shoved him in the trunk if the trunk hadn't been full of weapons. "Calm down. Deep breath, okay?" Sam told Dean. Dean took a deep breath. "There. You feel better?" Sam asked. Dean shook his head no, and Sam groaned. "Just come on. Let me do all the talking. And don't scratch," he ordered, swatting Deans hands away from his arms for what felt like the millionth time.  
They found the room they were looking for, and knocked on the door. An old man answered it.  
"Mr. Larry Garland. Hi uh, I'm Agent Tyler. This is Agent Perry, FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions about your brother Luther," Sam said.  
"Let me see some I.D," Larry demanded.  
"Certainly," Sam said, handing his badge over, and Dean did the same.  
"Those are real, obviously. I mean, who would pretend to be an FBI agent, huh? That's just nutty," Dean said. Sam stepped on his toes as discreetly as he could. Larry looked at Dean funnily, but handed the badges back.  
"Come on in, sit down," he invited, heading over to a table himself and taking a seat. "What do you want to know?"  
"Uh, well...according to this, your brother Luther died of physical trauma," Sam said, setting the file down on the table. Larry scoffed.  
"You don't agree," Sam said.  
"No, I don't," Larry said.  
"Well, then, what would you say he died of?" Sam asked.  
"Don't matter what an old man thinks," Larry said.  
"Mr. Garland. We're just trying to get the truth on your brother. Please," Sam said.  
Larry hesitated for a moment more, before he started talking enthusiastically.  
"Everybody was scared of Luther. They called him a monster," Larry started. "He was too big, too mean-looking. Just too different. Didn't matter he was the kindest man I ever knew. Didn't matter he'd never hurt no one. A lot of people failed Luther. I was one of them. I was a widower with three young 'uns. And I told myself there was nothing I could do."  
"Mr. Garland, um...do you recognize this woman?" Sam asked, holding out a picture of Mrs. O'Brien.  
"It's Jessie O'Brien. Her man, Frank, killed Luther," Larry said with certainty.  
"How do you know that?" Sam asked.  
"Everybody knows. They just don't talk about it. Jessie was a receptionist at the mill. She was always real nice to Luther, and he had a crush on her. But Frank didn't like it. And when Jessie went missing, Frank was sure that Luther had done something to her. Turns out the old gal killed herself, but Frank didn't know that. They found Luther with a chain wrapped around his neck. He was dragged up and down the stretch outside that plant till he was past dead," Larry said.  
"And O'Brien was never arrested?" Dean asked, sounding disgusted.  
"I screamed to every cop in town. They didn't want to look into Frank. He was a pillar of the community. My brother was just the town freak," Larry said.  
"You must have hated Frank O'Brien," Sam said, the idea that Larry could be responsible for the sickness coming to mind.  
"I did for a long time, but life's too short for hate, son. And Frank wasn't thinking straight. His wife had vanished, he was terrified. A damn shame he had to put Luther through the same, but...that's fear. It spreads and spreads," Larry said.  
"I see. Well, thank you for your time Mr. Garland," Sam said, standing and shaking his hand, before they walked out. It was night out already, and Dean was walking much closer to Sam than usual, looking around nervously.  
"Now we know what these are, road rash," Dean said, scratching his arm again. "And I'm guessing Luther swallowed some wood chips when he was being dragged down that road."  
Sam slapped his hand away from his arm sharply. "Makes sense. You're experiencing his death in slow motion," he said.  
"Yeah well, not slow enough, huh? Say we burn some bones and get me healthy," Dean said.  
"Dean, it won't be that easy," Sam said.  
"No, no, it'll be that easy. Why wouldn't it be that easy?" Dean asked.  
"Luther was road-hauled. His body was ripped to pieces. He was probably scattered all over that road. There's no way we're gonna find all the remains," Sam said.  
"You're kidding me," Dean said in disbelief.  
"Look, we'll just have to figure something else out," Sam said.  
"You know what? Screw this," Dean said angrily as they reached the Impala.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Dean," Sam said, holding his hands out and trying to calm Dean down.  
"Come on. No, I mean, come on, Sam. What are we doing?!" Dean demanded.  
"We're hunting a ghost," Sam said, trying to say it soothingly, and it sounded ridiculous.  
"A ghost, exactly! Who does that?" Dean asked, nearing hysteria.  
"Us," Sam replied, trying to think of how to calm him down.  
"Us? Right. And that Sam, that is exactly why our lives suck," Dean ranted. "I mean, come on, we hunt monsters! What the hell?! I mean, normal people, they see a monster, and they run. But not us, no, no, no, we- we search out things that want to kill us. Yeah? Huh? Or eat us! You know who does that? Crazy people! We...are insane! You know, and then there's the bad diner food and then the skeevy motel rooms and then the truck-stop waitress with the bizarre rash. And not to mention Alice, who swings back and forth between not caring if I sleep with someone else, to kicking my balls in if I look at another woman the wrong way! I mean, who wants this life, Sam? Huh? Seriously? Do you actually like being stuck in a car with me eight hours a day, every single day? I don't think so! I mean, I drive too fast. And I listen to the same five albums over and over and over again, a-and I sing along. I'm annoying, I know that. And you- you're gassy! You eat half a burrito, and you get toxic! I mean, you know what?" He tossed Sam the keys to the Impala. "You can forget it."  
"Whoa, Dean. where are you going?" Sam asked, spreading his arms to the side.  
"Stay away from me Sam, okay? Cause I am done with it. I'm done with the monsters and- and- and the hellhounds and the ghost sickness and the damn apocalypse. I'm out. I'm done. I quit," Dean said, walking backwards as he was talking. He froze when he heard growling behind him.  
"But Dean, what-"  
Sam didn't get to finish before Dean yelped, turning and running like hell, away from what Sam could see was a yorkie, with a pink bow.  
"Great," he muttered as he watched his brother run off down the street. "Alice is gonna skin me."


	10. Chapter 10

Sam called Ruby, who was staying in the same hotel as them, and they split up, searching the town for Dean until around 6:00 in the morning, when they finally gave up on looking for Dean, and just went back to the motel. He tried calling Alice a few times, but her phone was turned off. "We need to find him, anything could be happening to him," Sam was telling Ruby.

"He's fine, your brother's a big boy, even if he is a complete moron," Ruby said.  
He opened the door of the motel room, and there, sitting on the bed staring at the ceiling, was Dean.  
Sam closed the door quickly, stepping back out.  
"Sam? Is that you?" Dean asked.  
"Yeah," Sam called.  
"He's in there?" Ruby asked.  
"Yes," Sam said quietly.  
"So you want me out of here," Ruby said.  
"I don't want you out of here, but yeah, you have to go," Sam said.  
Ruby sighed. "Fine. Give him my love," she said sarcastically, heading off down the hall. Sam stepped into the room, glaring at Dean.  
"I looked everywhere for you, Dean. How the hell did you get here?" Sam asked.  
"Ran. Who were you talking to?" he asked.  
"The hotel manager," Sam lied.  
"Awesome. So what do we do now? I got less than four hours on the clock. I'm gonna die, Sammy," Dean said bleakly.  
"No you aren't, so stop thinking like that. Me and Alice'll take care of this. We've got your back," Sam said reassuringly.  
"Back?" Dean asked, looking puzzled.  
"Oh come on, don't start that on me," Sam groaned. Dean stood suddenly, and fell back against the wall.  
"No! You get out of my brother, you evil son of a bitch!" he shouted.  
"What?" Sam asked. Dean grunted, straightening against the wall, his hands flying to his neck as he started choking. He looked possessed.  
Sam ran over, pulling him away from the wall. "Hey, hey, hey, Dean. Hey, Dean. Dean. Dean," he said.  
Dean finally focused on him. "Sammy I'm scared," he said very matter of factly.  
"I know. Just-"  
Sam cut off as his phone rang. "Alice?" he asked.  
"Yeah. I talked to Luther. I know what's going on," she said.  
"You what?" he asked.  
"Luther Garlands ghost, I talked to him. He told me everything," Alice said.  
"Whatever, Dean's completely freaking out. He ran off ranting about how our life was dangerous and sucked, and now we're back at the hotel, and he just... I don't know, he looked like he was possessed, and he was shouting at me, like he thought I was someone else." Sam looked back at Dean, who was sitting on the floor leaning against the foot of the bed, scratching his arms furiously.  
"That's bad. That's really, really bad," Alice said.  
"What do we do?" Sam asked.  
"You call Bobby, and get him down here. He said that he worked a couple of ghost sickness cases, and he might have an idea of what to do. How fast can he get here?" Alice said.  
"I don't think he can get here in time," Sam said.  
"Well call him, and tell him to try. Describe what's going on to him the best that you can, and see if he has any thoughts on it," Alice said.  
"Alright, will do," Sam said. Alice hung up on him, and he dialed Bobbys number immediately after.  
"Howdy, Sam. What's going on? I bet you're calling to tell me you got the thing with Dean straightened out, right?" Bobby asked.  
"No, actually, we're stuck on it," Sam said. "Alice wanted me to cue you in on things and see if you had any ideas.  
"Okay, start talking," Bobby said.  
Sam told him all about what had been going on the past day or so, leaving Ruby out, but otherwise telling him everything.  
"Hmm. Where's Dean now?" Bobby asked.  
"Uh, home sick," Sam told him. He'd wandered out of the hotel room while talking to Bobby, and was now sitting on the hood of the Impala.  
"How're you doing for time?"  
"We performed the autopsy about 1:00 a.m. Monday morning, so, uh...just under two hours. Do you have any ideas?"  
"Maybe. I remember this one book I read, a long time ago, cataloging different types of ghosts and malevolent spirits. Anyway, this book lists a kind of ghost that could be our guy. It uh, infects people with fear. It's called a Buru Buru," Bobby said.  
"It say how to kill it?" Sam asked.  
"Same as usual. Burn the remains," Bobby said.  
"Wonderful. Uh...is there a Plan B?" Sam asked.  
"Well, the Buru Buru is born of fear. Hell, it is fear. And the lore says we can kill it with fear," Bobby said.  
"So we have to scare a ghost to death?" Sam asked.  
"Pretty much," Bobby said.  
"How the hell we gonna do that?" Sam asked.  
"I don't know. You've got Alice there, talk to her about it. She's scarier than my old mans underwear, and I know 'cause I used to do the laundry at our house. And let me tell you what, those things were scary."  
"Okay, Bobby, thanks a ton," Sam said, ignoring the disgusting overload of information. He hung up, and got in the car to head over to the mill, dialing Deans number as he went.  
"Hey," Dean said.  
"Hey! So, uh, just ride out the trip, okay? You're- you're gonna be fine. We got a plan," Sam said. "What is it?" Dean asked.  
"Uh, just a good plan, all right? Hang in there," Sam said. He hung up, silently saying a prayer that they could come up with a plan that would work.

* * *

"That's the worst plan I've ever heard in my life," Sam told Alice. She'd thought for a bit, and then told him her plan.  
She glared at him. "Well do you have a better idea?" she demanded.  
"I know I said, 'scare the ghost to death' but this?" Sam asked apprehensively.  
"Hey, Dean is running out of time, and we are out of options. So if you've got a better idea, I'm all ears," Alice said.  
Sam shook his head. "Fine. Let's do this."  
"I want to try to talk to him first," Alice said. Sam nodded.  
"Don't take too much time up, we don't have a lot," he said.  
"Right," Alice said. She walked a little ways into the mill, kicking up the dust at her feet.  
"Luther?" she asked, and she felt him appear immediately, in front of her. She felt awful. He trusted her. God damn it, why was she feeling so emotional lately? Must be PMS.  
"Luther, remember I told you about my friend?" Alice asked him.  
He nodded.  
"About how he's sick?"  
He nodded again.  
"He's dying. He doesn't have very much longer left. If you could do something to help me make him better, would you?" she asked.  
Luther considered that, and then nodded.  
"Good. I explained to you about Heaven. Wouldn't you like to go there?" she asked.  
He shook his head.  
"But that's where Jessie is. You can see her there," Alice said.  
"Frank's there too. He's mean. I don't like him. I don't want to be by him," Luther said.  
"But if you don't go, my friends going to die," Alice said. "And he's more than just a friend. You know how you loved Jessie? You remember how that felt?"  
"It hurt," Luther replied.  
"But do you think it would have hurt if you could have been together?" Alice asked.  
Luther shook his head.  
"Well that's how I am with my friend. And if he dies... I don't know what I'm going to do. I'll be lost again. Lost like you," Alice said.  
"But he'll go to Heaven and be happy," Luther said. "Don't you want him to be happy?"  
"Yes. But I want him here with me," Alice said. "And I'm not sure if he's going to go to Heaven."  
"Then you think he's going to Hell," Luther said.  
"I don't know. Maybe. I don't want to find out," Alice said.  
"If he goes to Hell, that means that he's bad. And he deserves to die," Luther said.  
"But it's not like that Luther," Alice said.  
"Only bad people go to Hell," he said with conviction.  
"It's complicated, but good people can go to Hell sometimes too," Alice said.  
"Then how do you know that's not where I'll go?" Luther said, obviously getting upset.  
"Luther, please," she plead.  
"No! I won't! I won't go!" Luther said angrily. "You don't like me that's why! You just want to get rid of me! Well I won't let you! Maybe I'll get rid of you first!" He lunged at Alice, and Alice ran out of the mill, falling to the ground as Luther jumped on her, the two of them tumbling to the ground.  
"SAM!" she yelled as Luther tried to get his hands around her neck.  
Sam ran in carrying a chain that was attached to the back of his car, trying to get it on Luther without touching Alice with it. Luther knocked him backwards, and Sam could see that this wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

Dean heard barking. Hellhounds? He shivered, and door rattled then broke off its hinges, the sheriff barging in.  
"Sheriff?" Dean asked nervously. "What are you doing?"  
"Why are you looking into Luther Garland's death?" he demanded. Dean caught sight of some scratches on his arm, identical to the ones he had.  
"Hey, hey, you're- you're sick. Sheriff Britton, you're sick. You're sick, all right? Just- just like me, okay? You got to relax," Dean said, holding his hands out soothingly.  
Britton took a step forward, punching Dean, who stumbled backwards. "Frank O'Brien was my friend. So he made a mistake. So I didn't bust him. So what? And you're gonna bring me down over that?! No, sir," Britton ranted, pointing his gun at Dean. Dean swatted it away, and Britton tackled him, coming out on top at first, but Dean managed to flip them, pinning his arms behind his back and leaning over him to keep him from moving.  
"Get away from me!" Britton shouted, struggling violently as he started to hyperventilate.  
"Al, you got to calm down!" Dean yelled.  
"Get off!" He started spasming under Dean, who was fighting down his own panic only barely. Britton stilled suddenly, no longer shouting, his arms going limp.  
"Al? Al? Al?!" Dean scurried away from Britton, jumping onto the bed, and scratching his arms. He took a breath, telling himself to calm down. But how was he supposed to be calm? He was going to die. Britton had just had a heart attack, and that was-  
Calm.  
"You're going back. It's about damn time too," Sams voice came, but it wasn't Sam, and Dean could tell. Not Sam laughed, and Dean squeezed his eyes shut, though he couldn't see anything anyway. The barking of the hellhounds got louder, howls thrown in with the barking. He opened his eyes, having sudden thought, and reached over to the nightstand drawer, opening it and pulling out a black bible. He clutched it to his chest, swallowing his panic.  
"Hi, Dean," he heard a familiar voice from by his side. He looked, and saw a little girl. He realized it was what he'd been envisioning Lilith as since Alice had described her to him.  
"Huh? No! No!" he said.  
"Yes! It's me, Lilith," she said, throwing her arms around Dean in a hug that he flinched away from. For some reason, the innocent way that she looked and her high, squeaky little voice made it all the more terrifying.  
"Oh, I missed you so much. It's time to go back now," she said.  
Dean scooted away from Lilith. "You- you are not real!" he said, more to himself than to her.  
"What's the matter, Dean? Don't you remember all the fun you had down there? You do remember. 4 months is like 40 years in Hell. Like doggy years. And you remember every second," she said, sickeningly sweetly.  
Dean hugged the bible more tightly. "You are not real," he repeated.  
"It doesn't matter. You're still gonna die. You're still gonna burn," Lilith said.  
"Why me? Why'd I get infected?" Dean asked.  
"Silly goose. You know why, Dean. Listen to your heart," Lilith said.  
"Wha-"  
"Baboom, baboom, baboom, baboom," she said, mimicking it's beating, and Dean could feel and hear his heart mimicking the rythym she was setting. He screamed, falling to the ground as she kept chanting, faster, and faster, and his head hurt, and he felt like he was-  
Dying?  
It all stopped suddenly. Lilith was gone, and his heart was slowing down. He was trembling on the floor, covered in sweat. He looked around, and realized that he wasn't afraid anymore. And his phone was ringing. He sat up, looking around for it, but it stopped ringing. It started again a few seconds later, and he followed the sound of the ringing, and answered it.  
"Hello," he asked.  
"Dean? You're alive? You're still here? What's going on, are you okay over there?" Alice asked from the other end.  
"Uh... I think so. I'm not dead, and I'm not freaked out anymore," Dean said.  
"Great! Good! Yeah, that's- Anyway, we're coming, right now," Alice said.  
"What did you do?" Dean asked.  
"We chained Luther to the back of the Implala, and road hauled him again," Alice said.  
"Ouch. Wait, you road hauled a ghost with a chain?" Dean asked.  
"Iron chain etched with spellwork," Alice replied.  
"Hmm, that's a new one," Dean said.  
"Well, we called Bobby up, and he said that one thing we might try was to scare the ghost to death. Road hauling was what he was most afraid of. It was pretty brutal, though," Alice said.  
"On the upside, I'm still alive, so uh, go team!" Dean said. "Anyway, I'm in the room with Sheriff Britton," Dean said, scratching his head and turning to look at the Sheriffs body.  
"What does he want?" Alice asked.  
"Well, he's dead. He was infected too, apparently, and he came over here ranting. Looks like he covered up who killed Luther as a favor to Frank, since they were friends, and he was convinced that we were here to prosecute him for it. He had a heart attack," Dean said.  
"Okay, then we need to get the hell out of dodge. Gather our stuff up, try and erase any evidence that we were there, and we'll be right over. I'm gonna let you go and call Bobby to let him know we're doing good here," Alice said.  
"Right, see you when you get here," Dean said.  
"Oh, and Dean?" Alice said.  
"Yeah?" There was a short pause before she spoke again. "I love you."  
"Oh. Well... I love you too," Dean said, baffled.  
Alice hung up, leaving him holding the phone. He put it in his pocket, and starting gathering things up, thinking while he was doing it. He guessed that he'd always known that Alice love him, and he loved Alice, but it had always been this unspoken thing, since Alice didn't really seem to believe in sincere exchanges like that, and he always made fun of them. But it did feel kind of nice, he realized, to hear her say it.


	11. Chapter 11

It was two weeks and four flopped cases later, and Dean and Alice were at the home of Mrs. Wallace. She had used to share it with a Mr. Wallace, but he had met an untimely demise by way of ingesting razor blades in some Halloween candy. They had pretty much given up on trying to find demon cases specifically. Alice had a theory that all of the demons were lying low until someone gave them the order to do otherwise, so they were unlikely to find any. And so, to keep themselves busy, and their reflexes sharp, they were taking on whatever small cases Bobby or other hunters threw their way. They were still on the lookout for demon cases though.

"How many razor blades did they find?" Alice asked Mrs. Wallace, who was holding baby Wallace. She was almost in tears, and Alice was trying to hurry things up and get as much out of her as she could before she started bawling.  
"Two on the floor, one in his stomach and one was stuck in his throat. He swallowed four of them. How is that even possible?" Mrs. Wallace asked.  
"Stranger things have happened," Alice said. Mrs. Wallace looked over to Dean, who was looking in the oven.  
"The candy was never in the oven," Mrs. Wallace told him.  
"We just have to be thorough, Mrs. Wallace," Dean said.  
"Did the police find any razors in the rest of the candy?" Alice asked.  
"No. I mean, I don't think so," Mrs. Wallace said. "I just– I can't believe it. You hear urban legends about this stuff, but it actually happens?"  
"More than you might imagine," Alice said. Dean emerged from under the counter, and held up a hex bag for Alice to see from behind Mrs. Wallaces back. Alice nodded. It was what she'd been expecting.  
"Mrs. Wallace, did Luke have any enemies?" Dean asked her, stuffing the bag in his pocket.  
"Enemies?" Mrs. Wallace asked.  
"Anyone who might have held a grudge against him," Alice said. She didn't know why they bothered asking. All anyone every said was, 'Oh no, of course not, they were a saint, everyone liked them, no one would do this to them', blah blah and so forth.  
"What do you mean?" Mrs. Wallace asked.  
"Co-workers? Neighbors? Maybe a woman," Alice specified further.  
"Are you suggesting an affair?" Mrs. Wallace asked, offended.  
"Well, it does happen," Alice said. Dean frowned at her, knowing that she was baiting the woman purposefully.  
"No! No, Luke would never cheat on me!"  
"Are you sure about that?" Alice asked.  
Dean cleared his throat before Mrs. Wallace could say anything else. "We're very sorry. We just have to consider all possibilities," he said quickly.  
"If someone wanted to kill my husband, don't you think they'd find a better way than a razor in a piece of candy he might eat?" Mrs. Wallace asked, calmed down a bit.  
"You never know," Alice said.  
"Thank you very much for your time Mrs. Wallace, you've been a great help to the investigation," Dean said rather formally, before turning, and motioning for Alice to follow him. She smiled at Mrs. Wallace, before walking out after him.  
"What was that all about?" Dean asked Alice as they walked to the car.  
"What was what all about?" she asked.  
"Why were you being mean to the widow?"  
"I wasn't," Alice said as they got in the car. Dean gave her a look as he started the car up, and Alice sighed. "Fine, I hate it when they get all like that," she said.  
"All like what?" Dean asked, frustrated.  
"They were a saint, and they never did anything wrong, and no one would want to hurt them, and I can't believe you're asking me that!" Alice said, mimicking Mrs. Wallaces voice.  
Dean chuckled. "That is really annoying. But still... don't torment the widows."  
"Fine," Alice agreed. "Hey, drop me off at that laundrymat up there."  
"Let me guess, you need more clothes?" Dean asked.  
"Almost all of the casual clothes I have are at least partially shredded," Alice said.  
"Do you want a key?" he asked, pulling up to the curb.  
"Na, I'll knock," she said.  
"Alright, see you later," Dean said.  
"Don't kill anything without me," she said, before closing the door and heading off.

* * *

When Alice got back, Sam was sitting on the couch in the motel room, with his laptop and a few books on the coffee table in front of him, flipping the pages of the books. The hex bag was disassembled in front of him.  
"Find anything?" she asked.  
"Nothing, besides that we're definitely on a Witch hunt," Sam said. "How about you?"  
"Two shirts and some socks," Alice said, holding her prizes up. Dean unwrapped a piece of candy, and popped it in his mouth, and Sam looked at him in disbelief.  
"Really? After that guy choked down all those razor blades?" he asked.  
"It's Halloween, man," Dean said.  
"Yeah, for us every day is Halloween," Sam said as Alice joined him on the couch. Dean sat down on the arm of the couch on the Sams other side, looking at what he was reading.  
"Don't be a downer," he said past his teeth, which were carameled together.  
"Well well well," Alice said, picking up a silver piece the size of a coin. "This is not your typical hex bag.  
"Yeah, we know. That there," he pointed to a dried herb, "Goldthread, an herb that's been extinct for two hundred years. And this," he took the silver piece from Alice, "is Celtic, and I don't mean some new age knock-off. It looks like the real deal, like 600 years old real," Sam said.  
"I know Sam, I can tell," Alice commented drily. "Let's see what else.. charred metacarpal bone of a newborn baby."  
"Ugh," Dean said, looking disgusted.  
"Relax man, it's like, at least a hundred years old," Sam said, grinning.  
"Oh, right, like that makes it better? Witches, man, they're so friggin' skeevy," Dean said.  
"Oh fuck me raw," Alice said, examining the cloth that the ingredients had been bound together with.  
"What is it?" Sam asked.  
Alice leaned back against the chair, rubbing her eyes. "Fuck. Awesome. Nice. You see this?" she said, sitting back up and showing them a small symbol on one corner of the cloth.  
"Yeah, it's-"  
"An elemental symbol that dates back almost to the birth of Christ, originating in Egypt in connection with the Pren Goddess Tsarilin, who traditionally represented the four Winds, but was later adopted by a tribe of nomadic Egyptian ex-priestesses who were tired of the Egyptian beliefs, and created their own religion based on the idea of the four Winds brought storms to all corners of the Earth, making Tsarilin the bringing of life, as well as the director of chaos and destruction," Alice said.  
Dean and Sam both looked a bit overwhelmed. "Okay, I was just going to say it was Egyptian, but you seem to know more about it than me," Sam said.  
"Trust me, I do," Alice said.  
"So what, we've got an ancient ass wind goddess killing people with razor blades in their Halloween candy?" Dean asked.  
"No. The symbol was adopted around the 15th century by a Witch by the name of Trelawney Darvian," Alice said.  
"So this is a Witch hunt," Dean said.  
"I'm guess that you know the Witch," Sam said.  
"I do. Not personally, but we ran into some hunters who were trying to take her out in 1890," Alice said. "If you ask me, she played a large role in my sister deciding that Witchcraft could be used for the best."  
"So she's powerful," Dean said. "We can still take her out."  
"I have no doubt that we can, but first we have to find her, and that could pose quite a significant challenge," Alice said. "And if she's causing mischief around Halloween..." Alice started counting off on her fingers, hesitating before she counted off the last one, looking defeated. "She's trying to raise Samhain again."  
"Raise who?" Dean asked.  
"Samhain, Dean. Samhain is the damn origin of Halloween. The Celts believe that October 31st was the one night of the year when the veil was the thinnest between the living and the dead, and it was Samhain's night. I mean, masks were put on to hide from him, sweets left on doorsteps to appease him, faces carved into pumpkins to worship him. He was exorcised centuries ago," Sam said.  
"So even though Samhain took a trip downstairs, the tradition stuck," Dean said.  
"Exactly, only now instead of demons and blood orgies Halloween is all about kids, candy and costumes," Dean said.  
"Okay, so Alices Witch friend wants to raise Samhain and take back the night?" Dean asked.  
"She's not my friend," Alice said. "And this is serious. The ritual to raise him requires three blood sacrifices over three days, the last before midnight on the final day of the final harvest," Alice went on for Sam. "Celtic Calendar, the final day of the final harvest is October 31st."  
"Halloween," Dean said.  
"Exactly," Alice said.  
"That sounds serious," Dean said.  
"We're talking heavyweight witchcraft. This ritual can only be performed every six hundred years," Alice said.  
"And the six hundred year marker rolls around..." Dean trailed off.  
"The night after tomorrow," Sam said.  
"Naturally," Dean said.  
"All we have to do is delay one of the sacrifices. If we can stop even one of them from happening, then that's it, it's over. Samhain stays in Hell for another six hundred years," Alice said. "And two days... admit it, we've done more in less time than that."  
"What happens if we don't make the deadline? I mean, he's just a demon, right?" Dean asked. "What's the worst he can do?"  
"One night every year for the rest of eternity upon which hundreds of thousands of people all across the globe are killed in brutal and horrendous ways," Alice said.  
"Are you sure you're not over exaggerating? I mean, that sounds like a lot of death and destruction for one demon," Dean said.  
"That's because he likes company. Once he's raised, Samhain can do some raising of his own," Sam said.  
"Raising what, exactly?" Dean asked.  
"Dark, evil crap and lots of it, I mean, they follow him around like the friggin' Pied Piper," Sam said.  
"So we're talking ghosts," Dean said.  
"Yeah," Sam said.  
"Zombies," Dean thought aloud.  
"Mm-hmm," Alice hummed absently as she thought.  
"Leprechauns?" Dean asked. Both Sam and Alice looked at him.  
"What? Those little dudes are scary. Small hands," Dean said.  
"Look, it just starts with ghosts and ghouls, this sucker keeps on going, by night's end we are talking every awful thing we have ever seen. Everything we fight, all in one place," Sam said.  
"It's gonna be a slaughterhouse," Dean realized.  
"Yeah, no shit Sherlock," Alice said. "So how about we stop chatting about this, and start trying to find this Witch?"

* * *

They split up, Alice going back to Mrs. Wallaces house, Dean going to the police station to see if they had anything, and Sam staying behind, and making calls to see if anyone knew any tracking spells, rituals, or any other techniques that might help them. They all met back up at the hotel that night, with nothing to show for it.  
"Well, I have a list of tracking spells and rituals that's about three miles long, but almost all of them require something that we don't have," Sam said.  
"Anything we could get ahold of?" Alice asked.  
"I don't know, dried intestine of a man killed on the 11th second of the 11th hour of the 11th month of the year?" Dean read from one of the recipes.  
"What we do have is something that the person we're trying to track touched," Sam said, pointing to the hex bag, but Alice shook her head.  
"This Witch isn't your typical idiot, she's good, and she's been around for a long time. You don't last as long as she has without learning how to go unnoticed, and be untrackable by spells," Alice said.  
"Well, then none of these spells would work even if we could get the intestines," Sam said, leaning back in the chair in defeat.  
"So now what?" Dean asked.  
"We could call for reinforcements," Alice said. "Call every hunter we know, and tell them what's going on. Do a sweep of the whole town. It's not that big."  
"But would they be able to get here in time?" Sam asked.  
"Are there even enough left to do something like that after the witnesses?" Dean asked.  
"Well do you have another idea?" Alice asked him sharply.  
"No, I was just pointing out the flaws in yours," Dean retorted.  
"Please don't start fighting you two," Sam said wearily, recognizing their tones. "Look, we can't do anything else right now. How about we just go to sleep, and think on it?" Sam said.  
"I'm all for that," Dean said.  
"It would be a waste of time," Alice said, but she plopped down on a bed never the less. Dean switched the lamp off, and they fell asleep one by one, all of them turning the problem over and over in their heads.

* * *

They were all woken up around 4:00 by the shrill ringing of Deans phone. He answered it quickly, clearing his throat as Alice turned the light on and Sam sat up in his bed.  
"Yeah? Uh huh? Oh, awesome. And where is that? Thanks."  
Dean hung up, and Alice knew it was bad news.  
"That was deputy Viske. There's been another Witchy murder," Dean said.  
"Alright. FBI mode back on," Alice muttered to herself. "Me and Dean'll go, Sam, start calling people. We don't have any other option."

Dean and Alice went to the address that Viske had given Dean, a very innocent looking house that was swarming with police. They were lead down to the basement, which had obviously been hosting a Halloween party.  
An officer was questioning a blonde teenager, and Dean started over to join in, but Alice stopped him.  
"Uh uh. No way," she said.  
"What? Why not?" he asked.  
"She's probably under the legal age anyway," Alice said.  
"I would never-"  
"But you did, remember?" Alice asked, smirking at him as she walked over to the girl.  
"That was your fault," he mumbled under his breath, going to check around for clues.  
"It's just so weird. The water in the tub – it wasn't hot, I had just been in there myself," the girl was saying.  
"And you are?" Alice asked her.  
"Tracy Davis," she replied. "You?"  
"Agent Seger, F.B.I," Alice said.  
"Did you know everyone who attended this party?" Alice asked.  
"Um, I know most of the people, but not all of them," Tracy replied.  
"Was there anyone really old here?" Alice asked.  
"No, everyone here was under twenty," Tracy replied.  
"You didn't notice anyone leaving rather quickly before or after the death?" Alice asked.  
"Uh, not before, but everyone was running out afterwards," Tracy said.  
"Could you make me a list of them maybe?" Alice asked.  
"Why, do you think someone did something?" Tracy asked.  
"Possibly. Could you make me a list of as many people as you can who left immediately after your friend died?" Alice asked.  
"No, I-"  
"Could you name any of them?" Alice asked.  
"Alice," Dean called. She turned, to see him standing by a couch, motioning for her to come over. She left the girl, and Dean showed her a hex bag as soon as she was close enough for him to do so without everyone else in the room seeing it. She sighed.  
"Great. Only one more death, and the Samhain raising will be a green for go," Alice said.  
"Did you get anything out of her?" Dean asked.  
"No. Just another useless blonde teenager," Alice said. "Let's go."

* * *

Alice stayed outside the house where the second death had occurred, and sent Dean back to stake out the Wallace house, reasoning that whoever had planted the hex bags probably had access to both houses. Dean pointed out that the Witch could have just broken into the houses and planted them, an Alice had hissed something at him about their having nothing else to go on.  
Dean stopped at a gas station, and picked up a bunch of candy, hoping to make his stake out more enjoyable. Then, his was bound to be better than Alices, because he took the car, which left her sitting on the porch of the old lady who lived across the street from the party house. That thing hadn't looked waterproof, and it was looking like rain. Dean stopped eating candy after two bags of gummy worms, and some candy bars, when he was starting to cramp. And he had to go. Couldn't something happen soon? Of course, with his luck he'd probably be here until-  
"Son of a bitch," he said, sitting up straight as he saw the blonde girl from the party walking up to the Wallace house. He took his phone out and dialed Alices number.  
"Please tell me you have something, I'm freezing my boobs off out here," she said.  
"I do. That blonde you were talking to at the party just showed up at the Wallaces house," Dean said.  
"So?" Alice asked.  
"So, I thought you said that she said she didn't know the Wallaces," Dean said.  
"She said she didn't know Luke Wallace," Alice said, though Dean could tell she was interested in this new development.  
"What did you say her name was?" Dean asked.  
"I didn't," Alice said.  
"Well what is it?" Dean asked.  
"Tracy Davis," Alice replied.  
"The Wallaces' babysitter is named Tracy Davis," Dean said.  
"Awesome. I'll get Sam, and we'll head over and kidnap Tracy," Alice said.  
"Wait, what if it's not really her?" Dean asked.  
"It's the best lead we have so far. And why would she lie about knowing the Wallaces?" Alice asked.  
"I don't know, but maybe we should look into this some more," Dean said.  
"Dean, we don't have a whole lot to lose by acting quickly, and if it is her, we're stopping a mini apocalypse," Alice said. "What is the downside?"  
"How about causing irreversible emotional and psychological trauma to an innocent teenage girl?" Dean asked.  
"I don't give a crap about that shit Dean," Alice said.  
"Well I do. Let's at least have Sam look at her," Dean said.  
"How long will that take?" Alice asked.  
"Not long at all," Dean said.  
"Fine, do it, and do it fast," Alice said.  
She hung up on him, and he sighed, dialing Sams number immediately after.

* * *

Alice ended up staying at the hotel, feeling completely useless while Sam and Dean went out to Tracys school to scout things out and get the lay of the land. Alice had been eaten alive by mosquitoes, which she found unnatural since it was almost november. All of the mosquitoes should be dead by now.  
"All the stupid brain eating monsters in the world, and there can't be one damned thing out there that eats mosquitoes," she mumbled to herself.  
"Actually, there is a type of ghost which feeds off of the intestinal tract of the male mosquito," a voice came from behind her. She stood, whirling around to see Castiel standing behind her, as well as another Angel.  
"Castiel! What are you doing here?" she asked.  
"We have come to prevent the raising of Samhain," he replied.  
"I thought that you and the rest of the God Squad were all taken up with the Seals," Alice said.  
"The Raising of Samhain is one of the Seals," Castiel said.  
Alice shook her head, knowing that made things about fifty times worse than before.  
"You always bring good news, don't you Castiel," she muttered.  
"No, for the most part, I deliver the news that no one else desires to," he said.  
"There you go. Who's your friend?" she asked, nodding at the black Angel in the suit next to him.  
"You know him. This is Uriel," Castiel said.  
Alice raised her eyebrows. "Oh hi there Raisin Bran," she teased him with an old nickname. The Angel didn't laugh, or even change his expression, and Alice sobered quickly. "I can tell this is just going to smiles and sunshine from here on out," she said. "Hey Alice, we-" Dean cut off when he saw the Angels, and Sam walked in behind him, immediately pulling his gun out and pointing it at Castiel.  
"Who are you?" he demanded.  
Dean grabbed his arm, pulling him back.  
"Sam! Sam, wait! It's Castiel," he said.  
Sam didn't lower the gun, but was now staring at Castiel, looking stunned.  
Dean spotted Uriel, and frowned. "Him, I don't know."  
"I do. That's Raisin Bran," Alice said, grinning.  
"Hello, Sam," Castiel greeted him, and Sam smiled, still looking awed.  
"Oh my God.. er– uh– I didn't mean to– sorry. It's an honor, really, I– I've heard a lot about you," he said,  
Sam stepped forward and held out his hand for Castiel to shake, but the Angel just stared at his hand like he didn't know what to do with it.  
"Oh come on, I taught you about handshakes back in 1890," Alice complained.  
"I have no recollection of learning this custom," Castiel said.  
"Shake his hand," Alice said, shaking her own hand at him.  
"Oh," Castiel said, taking Sams hand and shaking it. "And I, you. Sam Winchester. The boy with the demon blood," Castiel said.  
Sams eyes widened, and Alice cocked her head to the side at that comment.  
"His name isn't really Raisin Bran, is it?" Dean asked.  
"Not really, it's Uriel," Alice said.  
"Oh. That sounds better. More... Angelic," Dean said.  
"Dean, have you located the Witch?" Castiel asked, turning to him.  
"Yes, we've located the Witch," Dean parroted back mockingly.  
"So it's definitely Tracy?" Alice asked.  
"Looks like it. She was turning in some weird ass things for homework assignments," Dean said. "Witchy things."  
"I don't get why a Witch as old and as powerful as Trelawney would be going to high school though," Alice said, puzzled.  
"Camouflage?" Sam suggested. "She didn't want to be found before she could raise Samhain."  
"I suppose," Alice said apprehensively. "It seems a bit suspicious to me that she would be turning in 'Witchy' things for homework assignments though."  
"Is the Witch dead?" Castiel asked.  
"No, but-"  
"We know who it is," Dean said.  
Castiel reached into his pocket, and pulled out a hex bag, showing it to them. "Apparently the Witch knows who you are too," he said. "This was inside the wall of your room. If we hadn't found it, surely one or both of you would be dead. Do you know where the Witch is now?"  
"We're working on it," Dean said, sharing a look with Sam.  
"That's unfortunate," Castiel said.  
"What do you care?" Dean asked.  
"The raising of Samhain is one of the 66 Seals," Alice asid.  
"So this is about your buddy Lucifer," Dean said.  
"Lucifer is no friend of ours," Castiel said.  
"It's just an expression. Don't you remember? I told you about them too," Alice said in exasperation.  
"Lucifer cannot rise. The breaking of the Seal must be prevented at all costs," Castiel said.  
"Okay, great, well now that you're here, why don't you tell us where the Witch is, we'll gank her and everybody goes home," Dean said.  
"We are not omniscient. This Witch is very powerful, she's cloaked even our methods," Castiel said.  
"Okay, well we already know who she is, so if we work together-"  
"Enough of this," Uriel interrupted, stepping out from the shadows behind Castiel.  
"Okay, who are you and why should I care?" Dean asked.  
"This is Uriel," Castiel told Dean.  
"Yeah, I know his name, that's not what I meant," Dean snapped.  
"He's what you might call a specialist," Castiel said.  
"Specialist? Specialist in picky eating," Alice scofffed. "What's he going to do, throw breakfast cereal at the Witch?"  
"All three of you need to leave this town immediately," Castiel said.  
"Why?" Dean demanded.  
"Because we're about to destroy it," Castiel said.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a minute, halt the horses," Alice said. "What do you mean, 'destroy it'?"  
"Exactly that," Uriel said.  
"So this is your plan, you're gonna smite the whole friggin' town?" Dean asked.  
"We're out of time. This Witch has to die, the Seal must be saved," Castiel said.  
"There are a thousand people here," Sam protested.  
"One thousand two hundred fourteen," Castiel corrected.  
"And you're willing to kill them all?" Sam asked.  
"This isn't the first time I've... purified a city," Uriel said.  
"Look, I understand this is regrettable," Castiel said.  
"Regrettable?" Dean asked.  
"Someone gets an award for understatement of the year," Alice said.  
"We have to hold the line. Too many Seals have broken already," Castiel said.  
"So you screw the pooch on some Seals and this town has to pay the price?" Dean asked.  
"It's the lives of one thousand against the lives of six billion. There's a bigger picture here," Castiel said. "Alice, you of all people would understand."  
"Just because I understand doesn't mean I'm sanguine with it," Alice said. "I've made enough of that kind of sacrifice in my life. It never works out well."  
"Thank you Alice," Dean said.  
"Lucifer cannot rise. He does and hell rises with him. Is that something that you're willing to risk?" Castiel asked.  
"We'll stop this Witch before she summons anyone. Your Seal won't be broken and no one has to die except the Witch," Sam said.  
"We're wasting time with these monkeys," Uriel said.  
Castiel turned away from them. "I'm sorry, but we have our orders," he said.  
"No, you can't do this, you're angels, I mean aren't you supposed to – You're supposed to show mercy," Sam said.  
"Says who?" Uriel asked.  
"We have no choice," Castiel said.  
"Of course you have a choice. I mean, come on, what? You've never questioned a crap order, huh? What are you both, just a couple of hammers?" Dean asked.  
"You hit the nail on the head," Alice said sourly, her arms crossed over her chest.  
"Look, even if you can't understand it, have faith. The plan is just," Castiel said.  
"Yeah, well faith is an unlimited commodity, and I don't have a whole lot of it," Dean said. Alice raised her eyebrows, recognizing her words.  
"How can something like this be just?" Sam asked.  
"Because it comes from heaven, that makes it just," Castiel answered.  
"Oh, it must be nice, to be so sure of yourselves," Dean said.  
"Tell me something, Dean, when your father gave you an order, didn't you obey?" Castiel asked.  
Dean didn't say anything, and there was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "I'm awfully sorry boys, looks like the plans have changed," he said.  
"You think you can stop us?" Uriel asked.  
Dean walked right up to him, looking him in the face. "No, but if you're gonna smite this whole town, then you're gonna have to smite us with it, because we are not leaving. See, you went to the trouble of busting me out of hell. I figure I'm worth something to the man upstairs. So you wanna waste me, go ahead, see how he digs that," Dean said.  
"I will drag you out of here myself," Uriel said.  
"Yeah, but you'll have to kill me, then we're back to the same problem. I mean, come on, you're gonna wipe out a whole town for one little Witch. Sounds to me like you're compensating for something," Dean said. He turned back to Castiel. " We can do this. We will find that Witch and we will stop the summoning."  
"Castiel! I will not let these monk-"  
Castiel held a hand up. "Enough!" He stared at Dean for a second. "I suggest you move quickly," he said. He and Uriel disappeared at the same time, leaving the three hunters standing in the motel.  
"Okay, let's get moving," Dean said.  
"Where to?" Alice asked, following him out the door.  
"I don't know, we'll have to-" Dean cut short as he caught sight of the Impala. He looked around, furious.  
"Astronaut!" he yelled.  
"Don't tell me, I don't want to know," Alice said, getting into the back seat of the car. Dean got in the drivers side, starting the car as Sam took the passenger seat.  
"What are you thinking?" Alice asked Sam as they starting moving, noticing that he looked upset.  
"Nothing," Sam said. He was holding the hex bag in his hands. He took a deep breath as he started to take it apart. "I thought they'd be different."  
"Who, the angels?" Alice asked. Dean was silent, lost in thought as they drove.  
"Yeah," Sam said.  
"Well what did you expect?" Alice asked.  
"I just... I mean, I thought they'd be righteous," Sam said.  
"Well, they are righteous. That's kinda the problem. There's nothing more dangerous than some asshole who thinks he's on a holy mission," Alice said.  
"But, I mean, this is God? And Heaven? This is what I've been praying to?" Sam asked.  
"Just because Uriel's a dick and Heaven gives out harsh orders sometimes doesn't mean that God's an asshole too," Alice said. "In the end, it's what you believe that counts I guess, but don't let Uriel make you lose your faith. If I were you, I'd hang onto it all the more tightly just to spite him."  
"What about you?" Sam asked.  
"What about me?" Alice asked.  
"Do you pray? Are you religious?"  
Alice considered that. "I used to be. I don't really pray anymore."  
"Why not?" Sam asked Alice shrugged. "I don't know," she said truthfully.  
Sam looked down, starting to go through the contents of the hex bag, and picking out the charred bone. He stared at it for a few seconds, and something clicked.  
"You know how much heat it would take to char a bone like this, Dean?" he asked.  
"Oh... uh, no," Dean said, Sam having jerked him quite rudely out of his thoughts.  
"A lot, I mean, more than a fire or some kitchen oven," Sam said.  
"Okay, Betty Crocker, what does that mean?" Dean asked,  
"It means we make a stop," Sam said.  
"The high school," he replied.

* * *

Alice stayed out in the car, calling a few of her contacts while Dean and Sam went in.  
"What do you mean you can't? If you don't, all hell is going to break loose, here and everywhere else," she said angrily. She saw the Winchesters coming back, and snapped her phone shut, done listening to the other hunters excuses.  
"What's going on?" Dean asked, starting the car up and backing up quickly.  
"She won't come. Some kind of family emergency," Alice said. "What about you?"  
"Tracy isn't the Witch," Sam said.  
"How do you know?" Alice asked.  
"Her teacher, the one who told us she was handing in Witchy homework, has a cupboard full of baby bones," Dean said.  
"Great. Do we know where he lives?" Alice asked.  
"Yes, we do," Sam said.  
"We need to hurry," Alice said. It was getting dark out, and that meant that the third sacrifice would have to be carried out soon, or in six hundred years.  
"The third one is probably going to be quite more ceremonial than the other two," Alice said as they drove, as quickly as they could without getting pulled over and further delayed.  
"So there's a good chance he's at his house doing it," Sam reasoned.  
"Probably," Alice said.  
Dean skidded to a stop outside of a house, and they got out. Alice pointed around the back.  
"Sam, take the back, me and Dean'll take the front door, see if we can get him from two sides," Alice said.  
Sam nodded, and headed around the back. Alice and Dean walked up, and Dean tried the door, finding it was open. He swung it open quickly, and crept in silently, Alice following. Both of them had their guns drawn. The house was only one story, and only had a few rooms, and they checked them all quickly.  
"Dean," Alice called softly. He came in from the other room, and she motioned for him to be quiet. He froze, and realized that someone was chanting... under them? Alice started pulling the furniture out from the wall, and Dean looked in a closet, motioning for Alice when he found a door in the back of it. They opened it carefully, and walked in to see Tracy, her hands tied to a rope that was in turn tied to a hook in the ceiling. There was a gag in her mouth, muffling her screams, and an altar behind her, intricate symbols in a circle on the floor around her. A man stood in front of her, a knife raised. Dean acted at the same time as Alice, and they each put a bullet in his back. He fell forward, nicking Tracy with the blade as he went down.  
Alice walked over to look at the man.  
"Seriously, of all the Glamours out there, this has to be the ugliest one I've ever seen," Alice commented as Dean cut Tracy down. She took the gag out of her mouth, gasping for breath.  
"Thank you, he was gonna kill me! Ugh, that sick son of a bitch. I mean, did you see what he was doing? Did you hear him? How sloppy his incantation was?" she said.  
Alice and Dean both looked at her.  
"My brother. Always was a little dim," she said, kicking his body lightly.  
Dean and Alice raised their guns again, but the realization hit them too late, and Tracy threw her hands up, shouting an incantation which sent them both flying backwards, and screaming and writhing in pain on the ground clutching their stomachs, which felt like they were being pulled out. And both of them knew very well what that felt like.  
"He was gonna make me the final sacrifice, his idea, but now, that honor goes to him. Our master's return? The spellwork's a two man job you understand, so for six hundred years I had to deal with that pompous son of a bitch. Planning, preparing, unbearable," Tracy said. She knelt by his side with the knife and a chalice. "The whole time I wanted to rip his face off," she said. She dug the knife into the bullet holes, holding the chalice so it caught the blood. She looked back at Alice and Dean, who were still clutching their stomachs in pain, though Dean had stopped screaming, and Alice was only groaning.  
"And you get him with a gun, uh, love that," Tracy said. She got up and went over to the altar table, setting the chalice down.  
"You know, back in the day, this was the one day you kept your children inside. Well tonight you'll all see what Halloween really is," Tracy said. She started another incantation, and Alice slowly made her way over to the dead body, and dug her fingers into the bullet wounds, smearing blood on her face.  
"What are you doing?" Dean asked.  
"Just do what I do, nothing more," Alice said through clenched teeth, smearing it on his face as well.  
The ground started shaking, and Alice and Dean retreated into a corner as the ground cracked open. Black smoke poured from the chasm, funneling itself into the dead body. Alice grabbed Deans hand, holding it tightly, but otherwise not moving a muscle, and Dean followed her lead. Tracy watched the figure expectantly. He walked towards her, and kissed her.  
"My love," Tracy purred when he leaned away from her.  
"You've aged," the man, Samhain, said.  
"This face… I can't fool you," Tracy said, giggling.  
"Your beauty is beyond time," Samhain said. He leaned back in, resting his forehead against hers, before quickly snapping her neck, and letting her fall to the floor.  
"Whore," he said venemously. He turned, and Alice quickly closed her eyes, and Dean did as well. He heard Samhain sniff the air, and felt a foot nudge him. For a second, a wave of pure panic shot through him. Alice felt him tensing, and squeezed his hand, trying to keep him still.  
Samhain stood still for a moment, before he stepped over them, and they heard the door close behind him.  
Dean opened one eye, leaning over to whisper harshly to Alice when he saw that Samhain was gone. "What the hell is the deal with the blood?" he asked.  
"Halloween lore. People used to wear masks to hide from him, so I gave it a shot," Alice replied calmly, standing.  
"You gave it a shot?!" Dean demanded, not believing that she'd taken a chance like that on lore.  
"Come on, let's make sure Sam's alright," Alice said, standing and hurrying out of the room. They found Sam in the front yard, stumbling.  
"Sam!" Dean called.  
"Dean. What happened? I was out back, and all of a sudden I got this horrible pain in my gut, and then the ground started shaking... what happened?" he asked.  
"Samhain has risen. The Seal is broken," Alice said. "Don't wipe that off, it might come in handy," Alice ordered Dean, stopping him from wiping the blood off his face.  
"Why do you have blood on your faces?" Sam asked, looking like he'd only just noticed it.  
"Later. Now we have to get our asses to the nearest cemetery," Alice said, opening the trunk to the Impala and pulling out a machete, before turning and walking down the street. "I saw one on the way here."  
"Why are we going to a cemetery?" Dean asked, grabbing a few things, before following her.  
"Where would you go to raise other dark forces of the night?" Alice asked.  
"The cemetery," Dean admitted.  
"Yeah," Alice said. She started jogging, and it was completely dark out now, trick or treaters moving up and down the sidewalks in costume. At least most of them are wearing masks, Alice thought.  
They ran into the gates of the cemetery, seeing light coming from a crypt, and hearing screams from inside. They ran into it, seeing a group of teenagers locked inside a crypt, with what looked like zombies crawling out of the walls.  
"Help them," Sam told Dean breathlessly.  
"Dude, you're not going off alone," Dean protested.  
"I'll go with him," Alice said, and the two of them ran off, leaving Dean alone with the teenagers.  
"Stand back! Stand back!" Alice heard Dean yelling as she and Sam rounded a corner, seeing a gaggle of no longer dead bodies. "You wanna keep these guys from escaping, or go after Samhain?" she asked Sam, slashing at one with the machete.  
"I'll go after Samhain," Sam said.  
"Awesome, I get the fun part," she said, grinning and handing her her knife. "Just don't get killed, okay? Dean'll probably blame me if you do."  
"I won't," Sam said, hurrying past the zombies and leaving Alice slicing and hacking at them. They just kept coming, but to be honest, she was having a lot of fun. This was easy, fun killing of things that were already dead, and so would no weigh on her conscience in the least. Usually things didn't weigh on her conscience anyway, but she did spend some nights without sleeping over the things she did. She let all logical thoughts go, not bothered by the obscene amount of blood that was getting on her as she left a trail of hacked and mangled bodies behind her. She heard Sam yelling from in another chamber, and spun around, taking the head off of the last of the dead in her path, before racing off down the corridor to help him. Because while she hadn't told Dean specifically that she would keep his brother safe, it had been implied when she'd said she would go with him. She turned a sharp corner, to see Sam and Samhain in a large room together, but about five feet apart from one another. Sam had his hand outstretched, a look of pure concentration on his face, and Samhain was struggling against something that Alice couldn't see. She watched as Black smoke began to pour from Samhains mouth, realizing that it was Samhain. Sam was exorcising him. But with no words. Samhain screamed a final time, and the light in the room was blinding, and when it vanished, the demon was gone, his dead host body lying on the floor, and Sam was left standing, his hand still outstretched, blood running from his nose. Alice stepped back into the shadows, not knowing what she'd just witnessed, but not liking the feeling that she had one bit. She decided that Sam didn't need to know that she'd seen him do that. If he told her and Dean about it, she would know that it was probably nothing sinister. And that would be his test. She waited a few moments, backing up down the hall, and then sprinting back into the room, feigning surprise as she saw Sam, now bending to retrieve her knife from where it lay on the floor.  
"You did it," she said, phony disbelief on her voice, but Sam would never notice. Because Alice was, after all, a kick ass actress.  
"Yeah," Sam said.  
"What happened to your nose?" Alice asked.  
"We had a bit of a hand to hand fight," Sam said, wiping the blood away. "It's nothing."  
"Hmm. You should have someone check it to make sure it's not broken," Alice commented.  
"I don't think it is," Sam said. "Since I exorcised him, is there any chance that the Seal's restored?" he asked.  
"No, it's broken," Alice said. "And don't you mean killed?" she asked leadingly, pointing to the knife he was holding. He looked down at it, and chuckled.  
"Yeah. I meant killed," he said. "Come on, let's go get Dean," he said, walking past her. Alice narrowed her eyes, but followed him out, never the less.


End file.
